57 Covid-19 Cases Put Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy Under Serious Doubt

The upcoming knockout matches of the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy are in doubt after 57 people, including players, support staff and others involved in the tournament, have tested positive for Covid-19, said a report in The Indian Express.

When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to postpone the Ranji Trophy, the Senior Women's T20 League and Col CK Nayudu Trophy in the 2021/22 season on January 4 due to the rising cases of Covid-19 in the country, there was no mention on the postponement of the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy knockouts stage.

But with Covid-19 positive cases in 30 players, nine support staff members, and the rest of groundsmen and match officials on duty for the tournament, a decision might come soon on postponing the knockouts. "We will take a call on it soon. As the tournament was already on, we didn't want it to stop but soon we will have to decide on it," a BCCI official was quoted as saying in the report.

Eight teams - Mumbai, Maharashtra, Vidarbha, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Bengal had qualified for the Cooch Behar Trophy knockouts. They were scheduled to play their four-day knockout matches (Jharkhand v Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan v Mumbai, Maharashtra v Vidarbha and Bengal v Haryana) in Pune starting from Tuesday.

"Out of the 30 players found Covid positive, six are from Mumbai but there have been cases in each team. Mumbai and Maharashtra had played their league games in Pune itself and were already stationed there. One player from Mumbai tested positive on Saturday and his roommate was isolated. A majority of the players have not yet been vaccinated as they have been in a bio-bubble for the last one-month playing league games. However, it is learnt that most of the cases detected are asymptomatic," further said the report.

Teams outside of Mumbai and Maharashtra flew in from their respective locations on Saturday and were scheduled to undergo three-day quarantine. The report also said that the players have to share rooms and undergo daily tests for the next three days.