Sri Lankan cricketers violate COVID-19 protocols to attend a wedding

Sri Lankan cricket has been in all sorts of issues lately. Now, national cricketers and members of the team have been tested positive with coronavirus. There was regular advice from the medical professionals that everyone should stay home after the recent hike in the number of cases in the country. But the players didn’t pay attention to that. 

It has been reported that the players attended the wedding of Sadeera Samarawickrema, a fellow teammate. It was revealed that they went to the ceremony a few hours after PCR tests, and this put everyone at the wedding at risk. 

Those tests had been done on the players and support staff, who were shortlisted for going to West Indies. Senior player Lahiru Thirimanne and head coach Mickey Arthur were found to be tested positive with COVID-19. The duo was being kept at a private medical facility. This facility is reported to be one of the hospitals which are owned by Jayantha Dharmadasa, the vice-president of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). All the people who might have come in contact with them were put into self-quarantine. 

Given the current scenario, we cannot make the tour as scheduled: SLC CEO Ashley de Silva

According to the reports on Sunday Times, the SLC officials have revealed that 30 players were put in quarantine. 15 of them were first contacts while the others had trained at the national high-performance center. The first lot of the players will go for the consecutive PCR Tests on Tuesday and Monday. Further, on Monday, tests will be conducted. SLC CEO Ashley de Silva has said that if they are tested positive, they wouldn’t be allowed to train. 

The medical professionals of SLC have informed that Arthur and Thirimanne had not got in contact with each other once they were out of the bubble after the England and Sri Lanka series. There is no clue on how they got the coronavirus. 

Sri Lanka is due to play West Indies away from home in two Tests, three ODIs, and three T20I matches. The tour has been put under threat after these recent developments. It has been reported that there are chances that Sri Lanka can go for a smaller tour. “Given the current scenario, we cannot make the tour as scheduled but are exploring all options including playing a shortened tour,” said de Silva.