Cricket
7 members of England cricket team test positive for Covid-19
After an outbreak of the coronavirus in England's ODI squad, entire team is sent into isolation on Tuesday.
Current England ODI team (Source: TOI)
An outbreak of the coronavirus in England's One-Day International squad forced it into isolation on Tuesday. Tests on Monday, a day after the team's last ODI against Sri Lanka in Bristol, revealed seven infections among three players and four staff.
None were named. The squad has gone into isolation dating from Sunday, the England and Wales Cricket Board said in a statement.
The six-match limited-overs series against Pakistan, starting on Wednesday with the first ODI in Cardiff, was still going ahead. England planned to name a new squad on Tuesday to be captained by Ben Stokes and coached by Chris Silverwood, who had been due to take some time off during the white-ball series but has been pressed back into action The initial squad will be back in time to play the T20 series, which starts on July 16.
"We're in unprecedented territory in terms of replacing an entire squad and management team," said Ashley Giles, director of England's men's cricket, "and I'm proud of how everyone has come together in order to get it done." Most of those who tested positive are without symptoms, the England and Wales Cricket Board said, but some are feeling unwell. All players in the initial squad received at least one vaccine jab, but not everyone was fully vaccinated.
"We have been mindful that the emergence of the delta variant, along with our move away from the stringent enforcement of bio-secure environments, could increase the chances of an outbreak," ECB chief executive Tom Harrison said. "We made a strategic choice to try to adapt protocols, in order to support the overall wellbeing of our players and management staff who have spent much of the last 14 months living in very restricted conditions."
The new 18-man squad and staff drafted in will need to submit negative tests and complete "bridging protocols" before joining the squad in Cardiff. That match will take place in front of a 50% capacity crowd, with the second game at Lord's on Saturday representing cricket's first 100% crowd since the pandemic began. The series then concludes at Edgbaston. Stokes has been pulled out of Durham's English County Championship match against Warwickshire. He had been left out originally by England in a bid to manage his comeback from a finger operation. Revised England squad: Ben Stokes (captain), Jake Ball, Danny Briggs, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Lewis Gregory, Tom Helm, Will Jacks, Dan Lawrence, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Matt Parkinson, David Payne, Phil Salt, John Simpson, James Vince.
