IPL shutdown: Mike Hussey tests positive to COVID-19

Aussie cricket champion Mike Hussey has tested positive to COVID-19 as Pat Cummins opned up about how players are coping in India.

Mike Hussey — Australian cricket champion and Chennai Super Kings batting coach — has tested positive to COVID-19.

Hussey was tested twice after Chennai Super Kings bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji returned a positive test earlier in the week, with Hussey’s tests coming back positive, according to The Times of India.

The news came after the Indian Premier League was suspended indefinitely with Australian and international participants ordered into immediate isolation after more positive cases were detected amid fears the virus may have spread more widely.

It is the worst nightmare for the cricketers and organisers.

The Australians face the threat of jail sentences if they return home immediately, although Prime Minister Scott Morrison claimed on Tuesday there was no intention to apply the legislation which his government passed on Friday.

Mike Hussey, pictured when playing Test cricket for Australia in India, has tested positive for COVID-19 while in the country as a batting coach for Chennai.

Pat Cummins speaks from his hotel room in India.

The players - who have been in a strict biosecurity bubble - have been told they must go into isolation for four days and pass three negative tests before they are allowed to leave their hotels.

International cricketers have been told by organisers to go home to their families but the Australians are stranded.

The Morrison government has banned any flights from India into Australia until May 15.

Michael Slater, who launched a passionate attack on the Mr Morrison on Monday, had flown to the Maldives over the weekend.

That option is open to the 30-odd Australians in India.

There is also talk of the group ordering a charter flight to Dubai.

Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins appeared on Fox Sports’ Back Page program from Ahmedabad on Monday night as the story of the positive tests broke.

“Up until now I felt incredibly safe in the bubble they created, arriving we had to do seven days quarantine, tests every two days, we had to wear masks in the hotel, literally the only people we have seen are hotel staff who are getting tested every day and members of our team,” he said.

Cummins said he was shocked to hear about big fines and possible jail terms for Australians returning from India.

Cummins is hopeful the borders will open again on May 15.

“Once we flew out from Australia, we knew we faced 14 days quarantine coming home, so you always feel that little bit further away from getting home, but as soon as that hard border shut obviously no one has ever experienced that before,” he said.

“It added a little bit of anxiety for some of the Aussies over here but hopefully it all opens on May 15 and we are able to get back.”

Players were moved by the sight of bodies lined up to be burned at overworked crematoriums as they made their way to games in Delhi.

Cummins, who donated $50,000 to help India cope with the crisis, said he was rocked by the decision to slam the door on players and moved by the scenes in the country.

His teammate, Ben Cutting, speaking to The Back Page on Tuesday night from his Ahmedabad hotel room, said next moves for the Australian cricket team remained up in the air following the IPL’s cancellation.

“It seems to be changing every couple of minutes,” he said.

“I think in the next couple of hours, they’ll make a call on what’s going to happen.

Ben Cutting takes a selfie in his Ahmedabad hotel room in quarantine.

“It’s added a little bit of anxiety for a few of the Aussies over here.

“But we signed up to play the tournament till ... the start of June so hopefully it all reopens on May 15 and we’ll be able to get back.”

Cutting described the IPL’s cancellation as “a shame” but was unsure whether the tournament should have been postponed to begin with.

“It’s hard to say, you know, last year we had the IPL held over in the UAE and that was, you know, an incredibly, incredibly well run tournament. No hiccups at all,” Cutting said.

“I think this year they tried to push that little step further and have it over in multiple cities in India. So I’m sure looking back there might have tweaked a few things.

“It’s a shame and there’s obviously there’s been a few cases in the last couple of days.

“Up until now felt incredibly safe and confident in the bubble they’ve created.

Cutting is grateful to be protected from the virus inside his hotel room in India.

Cutting said amid the league’s uncertainty, he found the harsh fines and jail terms imposed for Australians attempting to return from India were a “shock”.

“Obviously, no one has ever experienced that before,” he said.

Cutting said he and his Australian teammates remained grateful that they were protected inside their hotel rooms in hotel quarantine as the cases in India continued to rise.

“It’s quite hard to grasp really. We’re, as I say lucky and a little bit isolated in this bubble,” Cutting said.

“The situation the rest of India is going through at the moment is, it’s awful. It’s horrible.”

The latest development came after Sunrisers Hyderabad player Wriddhiman Saha was revealed to be positive a day after the Kolkata Knight Rider confirmed bowlers Varun Chakravarthy and Sandep Warrier were also positive.

Saha is staying in the same hotel and believed to be in the next room to David Warner. The franchise said he had tested positive two days earlier and indicated he’d been ill with fever that has now passed.

Cummins said he had felt safe inside the bubble until the last few days.

A fourth player rumoured to be positive is in Ricky Ponting’s Delhi side, which also features Steve Smith and Marcus Stoinis.

Sunrisers were, incredibly, scheduled to play the Mumbai Indians in Delhi on Tuesday night, but that game was cancelled late in the afternoon and then the entire tournament suspended with no indication when or where it would resume.

“The BCCI does not want to compromise on the safety of the players, support staff and the other participants involved in organising the IPL. This decision was taken keeping the safety, health and wellbeing of all the stakeholders in mind,” cricket authorities said in a statement released Tuesday night.

“These are difficult times, especially in India and while we have tried to bring in some positivity and cheer, however, it is imperative that the tournament is now suspended and everyone goes back to their families and loved ones in these trying times.

“The BCCI will do everything in its powers to arrange for the secure and safe passage of all the participants in IPL 2021.

“The BCCI would like to thank all the healthcare workers, state associations, players, support staff, franchises, sponsors,partners and all the service providers who have tried their best to organise IPL 2021 even in these extremely difficult times.”

The suspension comes a week after IPL boss Hemang Amin reassured foreign players the biosecurity bubble was “totally safe”.

Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting has been stuck in isolation.

India coach Ravi Shastri said on SEN earlier this week that the IPL bubbles were the safest place in India, but the virus is rampant in that country and recent days suggest nowhere is safe as the IPL had gone to extraordinary lengths to protect everyone involved.

It is hard to see how India can host the ICC T20 World Cup later this year after this.

Ponting’s Delhi franchise, which includes fast bowling coach James Hopes and Patrick Farhart, have been isolated because they were the last side to play CSL - on March 27.

There were suggestions the IPL would move all its matches to Mumbai where infection rates have dropped from the catastrophic levels of recent times, but it appears there are no immediate plans to continue.

The competition is under political pressure to be played in India despite stories its Governing Council had recommended it be shifted to the UAE.

Adam Zampa, who was one of three players who embarrassed the federal government by returning via Doha when the Prime Minister had announced that avenue was closed, said that players were already agitated by the threat of jail terms for any Australians who tried to return home.

“The agitation revolves around getting home or getting to the next destination,” he told SEN.

Adam Zampa says he senses more agitation than he did a couple of weeks ago.

“The general feel is that the IPL will still go ahead, I just think it’s playing a waiting game and hoping the players are safe firstly, but I sense more agitation than I did a couple of weeks ago.”

Zampa explained how he got home to the radio station.

“Kane and I have obviously been in the news a lot about how we got home on that Doha flight,” he told SEN.

“As soon as we made the decision to leave, we told Simon Katich, who is the RCB coach, and he was fully supportive of it. And then we just spoke to the RCB management about getting us home.

“They booked through an affiliated travel agent and we got given the itinerary. I got it on my Qantas app. So we just followed the itinerary and that’s basically it.

“That’s as in-depth as it goes.”

Originally published as IPL shutdown: Mike Hussey tests positive to COVID-19