India vs Australia | Future of Brisbane Test under cloud as BCCI reportedly writes to CA

Sydney, January 7: The future of the fourth Test between India and Australia has been thrown into doubt after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) reportedly written to Cricket Australia to express the unwillingness of the team to travel to Brisbane, Queensland. The fourth Test is scheduled to take place at the Gabba from January 15.

Some reports had earlier quoted unnamed sources in the Indian team as saying that they were unwilling to travel to Brisbane because of the hard quarantine rules. The rules of isolation in Brisbane have been imposed the Government of Queensland unlike in Sydney, the current base of Indian cricket team, where the guidelines have been set by the Cricket Australia.

While at Sydney, the players can move around in designated areas and are allowed to mingle with other players. But in Brisbane they will have to confine to their own rooms as per the new rules of Queensland government, which the visitors are unwilling to go through. The Indian team cites the reason that a majority of the players are in various states of bio-bubbles since the IPL 2020 and also spent 14-day quarantine in Australia and cannot go through another hard quarantine while following the existing CA parameters.

"It has been told that the @BCCI has officially written to @CricketAus to formally advise the Indian team does not want to travel to Brisbane to play at the Gabba," reported the Fox Sports and wrote on their Twitter handle.

Earlier, Queensland had closed the border with New South Wales after new cases of Covid 19 broke out in Sydney and nearby areas. But the State Government said they would allow the Indian and Australian cricketers to travel to Brisbane under special permission but expressed unwillingness to relax the quarantine rules for the cricketers alone.

It has led to a some uncomfortable moments in the series with some former and current Australian players like Tim Paine, Matthew Wade, Nathan Lyon, Andrew Symonds etc openly crticising India's stand.