Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Ricky Skerritt confirmed that the two One-day Internationals between West Indies and Australia will be staged on Saturday and Monday at Kensington Oval.
Skerritt said it followed meetings between CWI and Cricket Australia (CA) late on Friday, after earlier discussions with the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and medical officials of the government of Barbados.
“We are happy to be able to announce the restart of the ODI series at Kensington Oval tomorrow,” he said in a media release issued a short time ago.
“We want to thank our counterparts at CA for their cooperation in this matter as we look to get the games going again. I appreciate the crucial role of the BCA and the government of Barbados for working closely with CWI to ensure everything is in place for resuming the series.
“It has been a challenging two days and we have worked very swiftly and safely, following all the established medical protocols, to make sure that all necessary precautions are in place to ensure that we can go-ahead to resume play safely (on Saturday). We will continue to monitor the situation and respond accordingly.”
The second ODI, which was abruptly suspended on Thursday, continues Saturday, starting at 2:30 p.m., with Australia having won the toss and chosen to bat.
The match was suspended after the toss because of a positive COVID-19 test result from “a non-playing member of the West Indies squad” and discussions between local health officials, as well as the medical teams of CWI and CA before the start of play.
CWI said all members of the West Indies and Australia teams and coaching staff, as well as match officials, event staff, TV broadcast crew were immediately tested for COVID-19 back at the hotel with everyone isolated in their rooms until all 152 people returned negative results.
Australia were scheduled to remain in Barbados until Tuesday before taking a charter flight direct to Dhaka, ahead of a series of five Twenty20 Internationals against Bangladesh, which was confirmed earlier this week.
Having sorted out the end of the Australia Tour, CWI will now have turn to the Pakistan Cricket Board to discuss adjustments to their Tour of the Caribbean, which is scheduled to start with two of five Twenty20 Internationals this coming Tuesday and Wednesday at Kensington Oval.
(AR)
