The entire Indian Test team, including the five players, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Navdeep Saini and Prithvi Shaw, will travel to Sydney on a chartered flight on Monday, the PTI news agency reported. The team, currently in Melbourne, will travel to Sydney together for the third round of the four-game series scheduled to begin Thursday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Rohit, Pant, Gill, Saini and Shaw cut themselves off from the rest of the Indian and Australian teams after Cricket Australia released a joint statement stating that they and BCCI will investigate whether all five players violated biosecurity protocols while dining. on New Years Day.
However, the agency report stated that they have not been prohibited from traveling with the team despite an ongoing investigation.
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“If you read the CA statement carefully, they never said it was a violation. They said they are seeking to determine if it is a violation.
“So there are no restrictions on these five players traveling with the team to Sydney. The whole team will be flying tomorrow afternoon, ”a senior BCCI official told PTI under conditions of anonymity.
It is understood that the controversy has not gone well with the traveling team and he is not amused by how Cricket Australia has handled the matter thus far.
“If the gentleman (fan) in question hadn’t lied about hugging a player (Rishabh Pant) on social media, this disaster wouldn’t have happened. The players had entered because it was drizzling.
“This guy, without permission, recorded a video and then paid the bill that no one asked him and after that for publicity he posted a screenshot of the bill,” said the official.
“You want to tell me that Cricket Australia will make a decision based on an alleged video of a person who first lied and then retracted his statement,” he added.
What was the role of the Administrative Manager Girish Dongre?
For BCCI, the man under the scanner is administrative manager Girish Dongre. Dongre is an employee of the BCCI and is supposed to handle and also keep the team abreast of Covid-19 protocols.
“Players are not supposed to carry protocol sheets or remember every written fine line,” said another BCCI official.
“There is a professional team of people who must make sure all the rules are followed and it was Dongre’s duty to make sure players are told that they cannot enter a covered area.
(With PTI inputs)
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