Thirty-eight members of the Australian cricketers, coaches and comentrators group stranded in the Maldives have reached back home in Sydney.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season was postponed on May 4 due to a rising number of Covid-19 cases and the entire Australian contingent had travelled to the Maldives due to an Australian travel ban from India.
The 38-member Australian contingent which was stranded in the Maldives includes the likes of Pat Cummins, David Warner, Steve Smith and Michael Slater.
They travelled on an AirSycheles flight chartered by BCCI and touched on Sydney Airport on Monday morning.
The group was taken in buses to Sydney hotels to undergo mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine for return travellers.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batting coach Michael Hussey who had earlier tested positive for Covid-19 in India is awaiting a negative test result to be able to return.
Earlier, Cricket Australia’s Interim CEO Nick Hockley had praised the BCCI and the Indian board’s effort to get the Australian players back to their homes.
“I would say the BCCI has been absolutely fantastic. So they’re committed to not only the first movement to either the Maldives or Sri Lanka but they’re also then committed to putting on a charter to bring them back to Australia,” he had said.
Mr Hockley also emphasised that no special treatment has been given to the Australian cricketing group in their quick return from the Maldives.
Australian government’s pause on the return of Australians from India concluded on Saturday, May 15.
Almost 9,000 Australians are still waiting for their turn to return back from India as the number of daily returnees is caped by the government due to lack of quarantine spots.