THE HIMALAYAN MAIL 11JAMMU WEDNESDAY APRIL 28, 2021

NEW DELHI, APRIL27: The BCCI on Tuesdaysaid it would do everythingto ensure that foreign play-ers competing in the IPLreach their respective coun-tries seamlessly once thetournament ends, a day af-ter three Australians quitthe event amid an upsurgeof COVID-19 cases in India.

Andrew Tye (RajasthanRoyals) and the duo of KaneRichardson and AdamZampa (both Royal Chal-lengers Bangalore) with-drew as apprehension set inafter a couple of weeks wentby smoothly for the leagueheld in front of emptystands across six venues.

"We understand thatmany of you are apprehen-sive about how you will getback home once the tourna-ment concludes... We wantto apprise you that you havenothing to worry about,"BCCI COO Hemang Aminsaid in a letter addressed tothe players.

"The BCCI will do every-thing to ensure that youreach your respective desti-nations seamlessly. TheBCCI is monitoring the situ-

ation very closely and isworking with the govern-ment authorities to makearrangements to get youhome once the tournamentconcludes.

"Be rest assured that thetournament is not over forBCCI till each one of youhas reached your home,safe and sound," he added.

India is recording over 3lakh daily cases for the pastfew days and the health in-frastructure is struggling tohandle the rise with short-age of oxygen and somecrucial medicines adding tothe crisis.

Australia on Tuesday sus-pended all direct passenger

flights from India with im-mediate effect until May 15due to the "very significant"spike in COVID-19 cases.

Kolkata Knight Ridersmentor David Hussey ac-knowledged that Aus-tralians in the IPL are a"bit nervous" about gettingback home in the wake ofthe situation here.

Amin lauded the playersfor carrying on.

"As some of you havesaid, 'if we can help dis-tract people from all thetroubles of recent times,even if it is for a shortwhile, we have done agreat job'. When you allwalk out onto the field, you

are bringing hope to mil-lions of people who havetuned in.

"If, even for a minute,you can bring a smile onsomeone's face, then youhave done well. While youare professionals and willplay to win, this time youare also playing for some-thing much more impor-tant," he concluded.

Several England andNew Zealand players arealso competing in theevent but haven't yet spo-ken about their concerns.The IPL final is scheduledto be held on May 30 inAhmedabad.

As many as 14 Australianplayers remain in theevent, including stars suchas Steve Smith (DC), DavidWarner (SunRisers Hyder-abad) and Pat Cummins(Kolkata Knight Riders), aswell as coaches RickyPonting (DC) and SimonKatich (RCB).

Commentators MatthewHayden, Brett Lee, MichaelSlater and Lisa Sthalekarare also among the Aus-tralians involved with theleague right now.

IPL: BCCI assures foreign playersa seamless return home

NEW DELHI, APRIL27: Australia will not pri-oritise its Indian PremierLeague (IPL) cricketers forrepatriation from India,Prime Minister Scott Mor-rison said on Tuesday, asthe Asian nation continuesto battle a massive surge inCOVID-19 infections.

Three Australian crick-eters have already cut shorttheir IPL season to headhome but a number of topplayers remain, includingtest stalwarts Steve Smith,David Warner and PatCummins.

Several Australians, in-cluding former Test captainRicky Ponting, are also in-volved in the IPL ascoaches.Australia on Tues-day suspended direct flightsfrom India until at leastMay 15 to prevent morevirulent COVID-19 strainsentering the country, andMorrison said the crick-eters would not be allowedto jump the queue forrepatriation flights whenthey resume.

"It's done on vulnerabil-ity," Morrison told re-porters.

"They travelled thereprivately under those

arrangements, this wasn'tpart of an Australian tour.

"They're under their ownresources and they'll be us-ing those resources to, I'msure, see them return toAustralia."Batsman ChrisLynn said he had askedgoverning body CricketAustralia (CA) to arrange acharter flight to bring play-ers home at the end of theIPL."I texted ... that asCricket Australia make10% of every IPL contractwas there a chance wecould spend that moneythis year on a charter flightonce the tournament isover?" Lynn, who plays forMumbai Indians, toldNews Corp media.

"We are not asking forshortcuts and we signed upknowing the risks. But itwould be great to get homeas soon as the event isover."

CA declined to com-ment.

The regular season endson May 23, with playoffs tofollow before the final onMay 30.

India's coronavirusdeath toll neared the bleakmilestone of 200,000 withanother 2,771 fatalities re-ported on Tuesday, whileits armed forces pledgedurgent medical aid to helpbattle the staggering spikein infections.

The IPL is being played

under biosecurity proto-cols and Lynn said he feltcomfortable in the envi-ronment and had no im-mediate plans to leave.

"Obviously India is inchaos at the moment. Butwe are at least giving peo-ple something to smileabout by playing the tour-nament," he added.

Eoin Morgan, one of 11England players in the IPL,said they were constantlytalking about the situationoutside the bubble.

"It's not nice to watchfrom afar, considering howlucky we are in a bubbleand not be affected by itvery much," Morgan toldreporters. "We lend oursupport ... to everybodywho is ill or going throughtough times."

New Zealand CricketPlayers Association chiefexecutive Heath Mills saidnone of their players hadasked to go home.

"There's no doubtthey're certainly anxiousabout what's happening inIndia and what they're wit-nessing. But they feel welllooked-after by their IPLfranchises and safe in theirbubbles," Mills said.

Australia PM says no queue-jumping for IPL players

NEW DELHI, APRIL27: With the Indian govern-ment opening up theprocess of COVID-19 vacci-nation for every citizenabove the age of 18 fromMay 1, all eyes are now onthe cricketers who are ply-ing their trade in the 14thedition of the Indian Pre-mier League.

The Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) hasleft the decision of vaccina-tion on the players. Speak-ing to ANI, sources in theknow of developments inthe BCCI said it is for playersto decide on vaccinationonce the doors open foreveryone above the age of18 from May 1.

"The Indian players can

get vaccinated from Satur-day. It is a call that is left onplayers," the source said.

Asked if an exception canbe made for the foreignplayers as well since thereare players from England,Australia, South Africa andWest Indies currently play-

ing in the IPL, the sourcesaid: "Only the Indian play-ers can get vaccinated here."

Meanwhile, Australia andKolkata Knight Riders(KKR) pacer Pat Cumminson Monday informed he hasdonated $50,000 to thePM-Cares Fund to help pur-

chase oxygen supplies forIndia's hospitals.

Last week, Prime Minis-ter's Office (PMO) said inline with PM NarendraModi's direction of boostingthe availability of oxygen tohospitals, the PM CARESFund has given in-principleapproval for allocation offunds for installation of 551dedicated Pressure SwingAdsorption (PSA) MedicalOxygen Generation Plantsinside public health facili-ties across the country.

India recorded 3,23,144new COVID-19 cases and2,771 related deaths in thelast 24 hours, as per the lat-est update from the unionhealth ministry on Tuesdaymorning.

IPL 2021: BCCI to let players decideon COVID-19 vaccination

NEW DELHI, APRIL27: England and KolkataKnight Riders captain EoinMorgan is pained to see thesurge of COVID-19 cases inIndia but indicated the on-going IPL could still go on asBundesliga and PremierLeague have set the perfect"templates" for sports tocontinue amid lockdown.

Returning to India in lessthan six months after the2020 edition was staged inUAE amid the pandemic,IPL found itself in the gripof a second wave of COVID-19 with few Australian play-ers and India's Ravichan-dran Ashwin exiting theevent.

With India's health sys-tem crumbling, severalstates have enforced strin-gent restrictions, includingnight curfews and lock-downs.

"Certainly, in the UK lastyear we went through se-

vere lockdown for pro-longed periods of time, andit looked for a long timecricket wasn't going to beplayed," Morgan said in avirtual press conference af-ter KKR beat Punjab Kingsby five wickets on Monday.

"I think when we firstcame out of the lockdown, Iremember the first sport be-ing on TV was probably inNew Zealand and in Aus-

tralia. It was the RugbyUnion's league and thenslowly, the Bundesligastarted and the PremierLeague started.

"And that almost dis-played that you can playwhile the country is almostin full lockdown. So, cer-tainly, there's a template tomake that happen, it hashappened. But also, as longas it doesn't disturb what's

happening in the publiceye."

Sending out his messageto fight the pandemic to-gether, Morgan said: "...wefight this together, no mat-ter where in the world youare, and so things like socialdistancing, going out wear-ing masks, and just gener-ally trying to stay as safe asyou can, are very importantmessages to portray."

His KKR teammate andAussie world number oneTest bowler Pat Cumminshas showed the way by do-nating USD 50,000 to PMCares to "purchase oxygensupplies for India's hospi-tals".

Playing their first matchin Ahmedabad this season,KKR snapped their four-match losing streak with afive-wicket win over PunjabKings to jump up to fifthplace from bottom of thetable.

Morgan cites EPL, Bundesligafor IPL to go on amid lockdown

NEW DELHI,APRIL27: Octogenarian shooterChandro Tomar, nick-named 'Shooter Dadi', hastested positive for COVID-19 and admitted to a hos-pital due to difficulty inbreathing.

The Twitter page of the89-year-old legendaryshooter, hailing from theBaghpat village in UttarPradesh, posted the devel-opment.

"Dadi Chandro Tomarhas tested positive for

coronavirus and has beenadmitted to a hospital dueto breathing problem.God protect all - Family,"the tweet read.

Chandro was already60-plus when she pickedup the gun for the firsttime but went on to winmany national competi-tions, even inspiring aBollywood movie on herlife.

She is believed to be theoldest woman sharpshooter in the world.

'Shooter Dadi' Chandro Tomar is COVID positive, hospitalised

NEW DELHI, APRIL27: Rajasthan Royals pacebowler Andrew Tye, who leftthe Indian Premier Leaguebio-bubble and returned toAustralia on Sunday, ques-tioned franchise owners overspending so much on the IPLwhen the Indian public isstruggling for basic medicalamenities.

'From a player safety pointof view, we're safe now but isit going to stay safe?' Tye wasquoted by cricket.com.au.

'But looking at it from an In-dian point of view, how arethese companies and fran-chises spending so muchmoney, and the government,on the IPL when there's peo-ple not being able to get ac-cepted into hospital?' Tyeasked.'If sport can continueand be one of those avenues torelieve stress or give a glimmerof hope that the world is OKand there is light at the end ofthe tunnel, I think it should goahead. But I know that's noteveryone's feelings and I com-pletely respect everyone'sviews from all angles,' the 34year old who plays for West-

ern Australia in domesticcricket and the PerthScorchers in the Big BashLeague added.On Sunday,Tye flew from Mumbai toDoha on his way to Sydney.He said he feared gettinglocked out of his country owingto mounting quarantine cases

from India in his hometownPerth.

As many as 14 Australianplayers now remain in theevent, including stars SteveSmith (Delhi Capitals), DavidWarner (SunRisers Hyder-abad) and Pat Cummins(Kolkata Knight Riders), as

well as coaches Ricky Ponting(DC) and Simon Katich(Royal Challengers Banga-lore).

Commentators MatthewHayden, Brett Lee, MichaelSlater and Lisa Sthalekar arealso among the Australians in-volved with the IPL 2021.

Tye questions money spent on IPL during pandemic

NEW DELHI, APRIL27: Dubai India is among sixteams that have qualified forthe women’s T20 competitionat the 2022 CommonwealthGames as cricket returns forthe second time in the multi-sporting event. The eight-teamcompetition will also includeEngland, Australia, NewZealand, Pakistan and SouthAfrica.

New DelhiShooting World Cup in

Baku cancelled due to pan-demic

The ISSF World Cup inBaku, Azerbaijan, scheduled tobe held just before the TokyoOlympics, will not take placedue to a surge in Covid-19

cases in the host country. Thetournament was to take placefrom June 21 to July 2 andwould have served as goodpreparatory ground before theOlympics. Rome

Italy to ban clubs that join

breakaway leaguesThe Italian soccer federation

added an “anti-Super League”clause to its regulations today,making it easier to expel anyclub that attempts to breakaway in the future. Serie A

leaders Inter Milan, Juventusand AC Milan were the Italianteams that were among theclubs leading the charge for theill-fated Super League. Agen-cies

BarcelonaBarcelona test can be a plat-

form to successWorld No. 2 Rafa Nadal said

his gruelling 6-4 6-7(6) 7-5 winover Stefanos Tsitsipas in theBarcelona Open final on Sun-day could prepare him for longbattles ahead in the Europeanclaycourt season. "I haven'tbeen able to play a lot of com-petitive matches for the pastcouple of months. Matcheslike today make me feel betterphysically," Nadal said.

India qualify for women’s T20 at2022 Commonwealth Games