Sri Lankan player in one of the two bio-bubbles has tested positive for COVID-19 as the virus outbreak continued to rock the home team ahead of its limited-overs series against India. The group of players are training separately even as the virus outbreak forced a postponement of the series by four days after the home team’s batting coach Grant Flower and data analyst G T Niroshan have contracted the virus. Batsman Sandun Weerakkodi has tested positive for COVID. Weerakkodi was with the 15 senior cricketers who were training here while staying at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.
Weerakkodi, along with Bhanuka Rajapaksa and several other cricketers, were sent to Dambulla on Friday night to play practice matches ahead of the India series.
The squad staying at Cinnamon Grand also includes Asela Guneratne, Angelo Perera and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and all of them will now have to undergo quarantine.
There is another group of 26 cricketers putting up in a separate bubble in Dambulla, and SLC said that they are all fine.
The Indian cricket team’s six-match limited-overs series against Sri Lanka was on Friday rescheduled owing to a COVID-19 outbreak in the home team camp, with the first ODI now starting on July 17 instead of July 13.
Flower and Niroshan — part of Sri Lanka’s support staff — have tested positive for the dreaded virus on return from the United Kingdom, which has forced Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to extend the hard quarantine period from the stipulated three days.
Weerakoddy wasn’t a part of UK-returned team. That team is still in isolation post Flower and Niroshan’s positive cases.
The latest positive case came from a separate bubble of 13 players.
