After being stranded in the Maldives for nearly two weeks, David Warner and the other Australian players who were part of the now-suspended Indian Premier League have finally reached home on Monday. National broadcaster ABC reported that the IPL-bound Aussie cricketers arrived back in Sydney on a charter flight Monday at about 7:30 am local time.
This would bring an end to days of uncertainty, anxiety, and panic in the wake of the travel restrictions imposed by some countries on individuals flying from India.
After leaving India on May 6 aboard a charter flight arranged and paid by the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), a group of 38 players, coaches, officials and TV commentators had reportedly been staying in the Maldives.
It was a couple of days back that the Australian government lifted a temporary ban that threatened citizens attempting to return from India with jail and that paved the way for the Aussie stars to get back home.
All the players, coaches, officials, and TV commentators will now have to undergo a 14-day quarantine in a Sydney hotel after which they would be allowed to go back home and unite with their families.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that the BCCI is eyeing the September window to conduct the remaining 31 IPL matches. While that is not confirmed as yet, the BCCI has said that the T20 tournament will not be held in India and other options are being looked into.
India reported more than 310,000 new infections and 4,000 deaths on Sunday, with the official number of Covid fatalities in the nation of 1.3 billion people now exceeding 250,000.