IPL 2022: Second DC overseas player tests positive as Covid-19 cloud thickens; fresh round of testing before DC-PBKS clash

The Covid-19 cloud is thickening around the 2022 edition of IPL as another overseas player from Delhi Capitals is learnt to have returned a positive test. The unnamed player’s result takes the tally of total positive cases in the DC camp to six, after Patrick Farhart (team physio), Chetan Kumar (massage therapist), Mitchell Marsh, Abhijit Salvi (team doctor) and Akash Mane (social media member) have all tested positive between April 15 to 18.

The development forced the BCCI to move the encounter from Pune’s MCA Stadium to Mumbai’s Brabourne in a bid to keep the IPL bubble’s integrity intact, which would understandably be at peril considering the travel in the same bus from Mumbai to Pune.

Meanwhile, Patrick Farhart was the first to return a positive test on April 15 and was subsequently pushed into quarantine. Later, DC cancelled their scheduled travel to Pune for the encounter against Punjab Kings before it was shifted officially by the BCCI “to avoid any further incident due to an undetected case during a long-distance bus journey in a closed environment”.

The BCCI, in the release, further confirmed that the entire DC contingent has been undergoing regular RT-PCR tests and that keeping aside all those who have tested positive, other members returned negative results in the fourth round of testing, conducted on April 19. However, the recent positive case came to light in the subsequent round of testing conducted on April 20 morning.

CricTracker understands the fate of the game hinges upon a fresh round of testing that will be conducted in the due course. It is understood that the immediate course of action, in case of BCCI’s inability to conduct the fixture as per the original schedule, would be to reschedule it at a later date. In case of a change, this would be the second time in a row that IPL will have been tinkered by the ravages of Covid-19 after the deadly pathogen forced an unprecedented midway halt in 2021.

It is worth mentioning, though, that the current IPL norms capacitate a franchise to take the field if there are a minimum of 12 players available, seven of which shall be Indians and one substitute. In case a team has fewer than 12 players, the BCCI will reschedule the match to a later date, and if that is not possible, the matter will be referred to the technical committee of the IPL, whose decision will be final and binding.