BCCI To Arrange Flights For Aussie Players Via Maldives & SL: Cricket Australia

The Australian players and commentators who are present in India due to IPL are itching to go back to their home country. But with travel restrictions in place by the Australian government, BCCI would have to go an extra mile to ensure the safe return of the Australians.

Image: AFP

IPL 2021: The Indian Premier League (IPL) was 'indefinitely suspended' by the IPL governing council after there were a number of cases of Covid-19 among the players and support staff. Recently, Australian Mike Hussey who is the batting coach of CSK was also infected with Covid -19. Cricket Australia's chief executive Nick Hockley on Wednesday said that BCCI is going to arrange chartered flights for the Australians who are present in India due to the IPL. But, the Aussie recruits will have to take a route via the Maldives or Sri Lanka, Hockley confirmed. 

"What the BCCI is working to do is to move the entire cohort out of India where they will wait until it's possible to return to Australia," Hockley told reporters on Wednesday.

"The BCCI has been working on a range of options. That's now narrowed down to the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The BCCI is committed not only to the first move but also to putting on a charter to bring them back to Australia."

"At the moment, the BCCI is very focused on getting all the players, not just the Australians, home safe," he concluded. Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) chief executive Todd Greenberg also said Michael Hussey is also in "good spirits" after he was detected with Covid-19."His symptoms are relatively mild, so he's in for a stint of isolation in his hotel for at least 10 days, but his team has got some really good support systems around him, which is good," Greenberg said in 'Sydney Morning Herald'.

Earlier, Australian PM had declined the demand by Chris Lynn as the Australian government has suspended all flights to India till at least May 15. PM Morrison said that the IPL cricketers have not traveled for an Australian international tour and no special arrangements could be made for the players. He said, “They (cricketers) have traveled there privately under those arrangements, this wasn't part of an Australian tour

"They are under their own resources and they'll be using those resources, I'm sure, to seek to return to Australia in accordance with our own arrangements," PM Scott Morrison told the news agency AFP.

 

 

 

With inputs from PTI.