IPL 2021: The last fortnight was tough on Kolkata Knight Riders’ Tim Seifert. The New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman was stranded in India alongside Chennai Super Kings bating coach Michael Hussey after the two tested positive. Seifert tested positive hours before he was set to take the flight home in a pre-departure PCR test. He returned home last week after recovering from the disease. Narrating the situation, he was in, Seifert broke into tears.
“The Chennai Super Kings manager showed me the positive on the top of the test. The world stops and I just couldn’t really think what was next and that was the scariest part of it – you hear about the bad things and I thought that was going to happen to me,” Tim Seifert narrated what he went through in an online conference to local media from his 14-day isolation in New Zealand. He broke into tears as he explained the situation.
IPL 2021: It was visible that Tim Seifert took it hard seeing all the deaths around with all his teammates leaving him for home while he was put in 10-day isolation in Chennai. The media reports of thousands of deaths and lack of medical oxygen didn’t help the situation either.
“The news is all about a lack of oxygen, you don’t know if you’re going to be in that situation. It’s just the whole unknown of what Covid is, how you’re going to react to it,” he said, adding that the confirmed positive test result was the toughest part as he is set to get married in a couple of months.
However, as days passed, things got easier with support from Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming and Kolkata Knight Riders coach Brendon McCullum. Tim Seifert said that they made things easier for him while he was in isolation and showed moderate symptoms.
IPL 2021: “They made everything a lot easier. They made sure that things would be put in place and the CSK management and CEO of Kolkata Knight Riders the team Seifert played for, they made life easy for me to know that everything would be alright and when that time was to come home, they’d try everything to get me home safely,” Tim Seifert explained.
Seifert said that knowing he was getting married in the next two months helped him get through the toughest part of his life.
IPL 2021: “It was definitely hard getting told but once a few days had gone by and everything had calmed down a bit. I just knew it was about getting through it and thinking of the positives. My fiance was quite happy I’m back a bit earlier so I can help with all the planning,” Tim Seifert said. He was one of four KKR players to test positive for the virus. Varun Chakaravarthy, Sandeep Warrier and Prasidh Krishna were the other three players.
The Kiwi white-ball specialist did not play a game in IPL 2021 for Kolkata Knight Riders this season but was expected to play a part in the campaign with the side struggling. For New Zealand, he has played in 35 T20Is and 3 ODIs since making his debut in 2018.