Tough quarantine rules hit India on tour’s final leg

MUMBAI: After raising concerns about the hard quarantine rules in Brisbane, the Indian team arrived in the city in Queensland on Tuesday and found themselves in a difficult situation at the team hotel.

On arrival, the team was told that there would be “no room service and housekeeping, and no access to gym or swimming pool facilities because of the local Covid guidelines”, according to a person in the team who did not wish to be named.

The team yet again raised the issue with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which in turn spoke to Cricket Australia (CA) to allow for some easing of the rules. It is learnt that CA had assured the team that more facilities, including room service and access to gyms, will be made available to the team from Wednesday. “We weren’t locked in our rooms. There was access to the team room,” said the person cited above. “But we could not use the lifts to many of the hotel facilities. Players were told to do their own rooms, with no access to housekeeping. We have to spend another week here, and a Test match to play.”

The team has been assured by the BCCI that they will get access to lifts on all floors in the hotel from Wednesday. Room service and housekeeping will also be provided. They will however have to do without the use of the swimming pool. The Indian team touring Australia is following the rules put in place by the local government of whichever state they are in. The Queensland government has enforced a strict 14-day quarantine for anyone moving in from New South Wales, which is where the two cricket teams came from.

There are a total of 26 Covid-19 positive cases in Queensland, with three recorded in the last 24 hours, as per the Queensland health website.

While the mandatory 14-day quarantine rules have been relaxed for the two teams, they are not allowed to move out of their hotels except for training and on match days. Both teams followed the same protocol in Sydney too. During the One-day leg of the tour in Sydney and Canberra, as well as during the first two Tests in Adelaide and Melbourne, the teams had the freedom to move around the city as per the state Covid-19 guidelines in place during that time.