No travel restrictions, five isolated Indian players to board flight to Sydney with rest of the squad for third Test

The entire Indian Test squad including the five players – Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Navdeep Saini, and Prithvi Shaw – is slated to travel to Sydney in a chartered flight on Monday, reported news agency PTI. The team, currently in Melbourne, will travel to Sydney together for the thrid Test of the four-match series slated to begin from Thursday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Rohit, Pant, Gill, Saini and Shaw were placed in isolation from the rest of the Indian and Australian squads after Cricket Australia released a joint statement stating that they and BCCI will investigate whether the five players breached the bio-secure protocols by dining out on New Year’s day.

The agency report however claimed that they have not been barred from travelling with the team despite an ongoing investigation.

“If you carefully read the CA statement, they never said that it’s a breach. They said that they are seeking to determine if it’s a breach.

“So there is no restriction on these five players travelling with the team to Sydney. The entire team is flying tomorrow afternoon,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

It is understood that the controversy has not gone down well with the travelling team and it is not amused with how Cricket Australia has so far handled the issue.

“Had the gentleman (the fan) in question not lied about hugging a player (Rishabh Pant) on social media, this mess wouldn’t have happened. The players had gone inside because it was drizzling.

“This guy, without permission, shot a video and then paid the bill which no one asked him to and after that for publicity put a screen grab of bill,” the official said.

“You want to tell me that Cricket Australia will be taking a decision based on a purported video of a person who first lied and then retracted his statement,” he added.

What was Administrative Manager Girish Dongre’s role?

For BCCI, the man under scanner is administrative manager Girish Dongre. Dongre is an employee of the BCCI and is supposed to handle and also keep the team abreast about the COVID-19 protocols.

“The players are not supposed to carry the protocol sheets or remember every fine line written,” another BCCI official said.

“There is a professional team of people who have to ensure that every rule is being followed and it was Dongre’s duty to ensure that players are told that they can’t get into an indoor area,” he added.

(With PTI inputs)

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