India say they will play Tests this summer, but baulk at quarantine conditions

Cricket Australia confirm Virat Kohli’s Test team will tour Australia, but they have baulked at quarantine conditions

Virat Kohli’s Indians have agree to tour this year, but with one condition

The good news is that India has told Australia it is coming in December for the Test series; the concern is the visitors do not want to do two weeks in quarantine. India has 850,000 COVID-19 cases with little indication it is flattening the alarming curve of both infections and deaths.

Cricket Australia confirmed to The Australian on Sunday morning that the Indian side was ready to tour in the summer. And BCCI chairman Sourav Ganguly confirmed earlier that his board had indicated its willingness to tour with one caveat.

“Ya, ya, we have confirmed that tour. In December we will be coming. We just hope the number of quarantine days get reduced a bit,” Ganguly told TV channel India Today.

“Because we don’t want the players to go all that far and sit in hotel rooms for two weeks. It is very, very depressing and disappointing.”

“And, as I said Australia and New Zealand have been in good position except Melbourne. So from that point of view we will be going there and hopefully the quarantine days will be less and we can get back to cricket.

The quarantine concerns would almost certainly be a deal-breaker if the Indians stuck to their position. Australian governments of all varieties have shown little stomach for allowing sport exemptions, conscious of the example it sets suffering communities.

The Indian and Australian governments have, however, indicated their desire for the tour to go ahead. One option would be for the Indians to quarantine at home and have a modified quarantine on arrival.

The West Indies and Pakistan have been widely celebrated for flying into England, a country with one of the worst COVID-19 records by head of population. Both teams entered lockdowns for two weeks before emerging to play.

The hope in Australia is the Indians might be able to have a modified quarantine that enables them to train in an environment such as Perth or Adelaide, where there are hotels in the cricket precincts.

The West Indies squad spent 14 days in quarantine after landing in England on June 9 for the three-Test tour, which began on July 8, marking the return of international cricket.

Virat Kohli’s India are scheduled to tour Australia for four Tests in December-January.

India won a four-Test series in Australia 2-1 in 2018-19 against an Australian side without David Warner and Steve Smith.

“It is going to be a tough series. It is not going to be what it was two years back. It is going to be a strong Australia but our team is as good,” said Ganguly.

“We have the batting, we have the bowling. We just need to bat better. The best teams overseas bat well.

“When we were so successful in England, in Australia, in Pakistan we were getting 400-500-600 in Test matches. I said that to Virat as well.”

The summer schedule cannot be locked in until the ICC indicates what is happening with the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia in October-November.

Few expect it to go ahead as the logistics of flying 16 teams around the country seem too difficult in these times.

A call to cancel the series is expected to be made this week. The BCCI wants to schedule the IPL in the window, with expectations it will be held in the UAE.