ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Sheldon Cottrell, Roston Chase and Kyle Mayers have been ruled out of the tour of Pakistan after testing positive for COVID-19, but Cricket West Indies said yesterday the six-match would continue as planned.
The trio are among four positive cases in the travelling contingent which arrived in Karachi on Thursday for the December 13-22 series, the other being a “non-coaching” member of the support staff.
CWI said the four were fully vaccinated and were not displaying any “major symptoms”, and would remain in isolation for 10 days under the care of team physician, Dr Akshai Mansingh.
They will be released once testing negative.
While describing the development as a “significant setback”, CWI chief executive Johnny Grave said the series, comprising three One-Day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals, would proceed as the remaining members of the contingent had all returned two negative PCR tests since their arrival.
“Our arrival testing protocols in Pakistan have confirmed four COVID-19 positives,” Grave said in a statement yesterday.
“These were confirmed whilst the players and staff were still in room isolation, so despite this significant setback to our preparation plans, we are confident that the tour can continue as everyone else returned negative PCRs prior to their arrival into Pakistan and two negative PCRs since they have been in Karachi.
“The risk of COVID-19 infection is impossible to remove completely from a cricket tour, in spite of the fact that many of our players have been living in bio-secure bubbles almost continuously since before the CPL.
“This unusual loss of three players from our squad will seriously impact our team preparations, but the rest of the squad are in good spirits and will begin training today ahead of our first game on Monday.”
Training was cancelled Friday as a result of the positive cases but went ahead yesterday once the remainder of the contingent were tested.
And with the first match – a Twenty20 International – set to bowl off tomorrow at the National Stadium in Karachi, West Indies will now face a race against time to be properly prepared for the engagement.
Chase, a right-hander who bowls off-spin, was selected in both the ODI and T20I squads. He made his T20I debut in October during the T20 World Cup in United Arab Emirates and has played just three matches in the shortest format.
Left-arm pacer Cottrell, named in the T20 squad only, played the last of his 34 T20Is six months ago while Mayers, a hard-hitting left-hander and right-arm medium pacer, was on his maiden T20 tour.
Both Chase and Mayers were part of the recent two-Test tour of Sri Lanka which West Indies lost 2-0.
The withdrawals represent a further disruption to the squad following captain Kieron Pollard’s pullout last week due to injury.
