The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has suffered another setback ahead of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) as another member of its medical tested positive for the dreaded COVID-19. This comes just days after 13 members of the Chennai Super Kings including two players tested positive for the virus.
The member contracted the virus on a day when UAE registered its biggest tally of new coronavirus cases since May 27. As per a report in The Indian Express, the professional does not have symptoms and has been isolated.
Fortunately, no other member in the CSK camp has tested positive after the 13 members contracted the virus. The entire team is currently in quarantine after their mandatory 6-day quarantine was extended in the wake of the positive cases. On Tuesday. CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan confirmed that all the members, except the 13, returned negative results while also stating that the team is likely to start training on September 4.
Alarming situation in UAE:
While UAE was selected as the venue for IPL 2020 after it managed to bring the coronavirus situation in control, the present situation is not at all promising. The cases are rising at an alarming rate in UAE at present. The gulf country on its Covid-19 website informed that 735 new positive cases were diagnosed on Wednesday from a total of 79,623 tests. Since May 27, when the country announced 883 new positive cases, they had significantly flattened the curve.
But in the last few days, there has been a rise in positive cases. UAE football season, supposed to begin on Thursday, has been put off by 4 weeks. IPL 2020 is scheduled to start on September 19 and BCCI definitely face an upheaval task in making sure that the tournament starts on time.