Vijay Hazare Trophy: Bihar cricketer tests COVID-19 positive, others to undergo tests

Action from a Vijay Hazare Trophy game. (Image for representation purpose)

The Vijay Hazare Trophy has seen its first case of COVID-19 with a Bihar player returning positive for the virus, following which all the other cricketers are being tested. “It is confirmed and the concerned player has been isolated from other players. He is currently in Bangalore as he cannot travel,” a senior official of the state’s cricket body was quoted as saying by news agency PTI on Tuesday (February 23). 

Another source said that all the other players will undergo COVID-19 tests on Tuesday with the results coming by evening. Bihar has sent 22 players for testing. 

The Bihar team is placed in Elite Group C and is playing all its league games in Bengaluru. They are scheduled to take on Uttar Pradesh in a league game on Wednesday. 

A Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) official believed that the game would go on as scheduled. A player each from Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh had tested positive for COVID-19 last week, but both the teams have continued playing their league games after undergoing tests. 

Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh are placed in Elite Group D and have been playing in Jaipur. All the matches of the Hazare Trophy, the national ODI championship, are being played under the bio-secure bubble across venues. 

This is the second tournament conducted by the BCCI in the curtailed 2020-21 domestic season.  

Earlier, on a comeback trail after the end of his spot-fixing ban, pacer S Sreesanth on Monday picked up his first five-wicket haul in List A cricket in almost 15 years to help Kerala pull-off a three-wicket win over Uttar Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. 

The 37-year-old, who was not shortlisted in IPL 2021 auction’s final list, returned figures of five for 65 in his first List A game in more than eight years. Sreesanth, who had returned to competitive cricket last month after his life ban was overturned, opened his account by dismissing opener Abhishek Sharma.