Ian Chappell gets kicked out of the Adelaide Oval?
Pigs could fly.
Unless, in these bizarre and unsettling times, it actually did happen tonight.
The Australian cricket legend, who has a grandstand named after him on the ground, fulfilled his commentary obligations for the ABC on the second day of the first test against India.
As a resident of Sydney Northern Beaches, the South Australian government knocked as the COVID-19 cluster toll continued to rise.
And in dramatic scenes, 77-year-old Chappell has been asked to leave his beloved soil and isolate himself before taking a COVID test tomorrow.
He is not sure whether he will then stay in Adelaide or return to Sydney.
“I don’t know too much, the problem is the zip code (in Sydney),” said Chappell Broad world of sport.
“I haven’t been to any of the locations (with known COVID contacts) but when they asked about the Northern Beaches local government area I had to say ‘yes’ to it.
“That triggered everything.
“I still have no idea.
“I’ll just take the test and see what happens in the morning.”
Ian Chappell, thrown out of the Adelaide Oval …
“It’s weird, but that’s life right now,” he said.
Earlier in the day, former Australian paceman Brett Lee suffered the same feat.
Lee is a resident of Northern Beaches and one of several Fox Sports and Channel 7 employees who were sent home after the cluster.
According to the Daily telegraphLee has no symptoms of the virus and has not been to any of the reported hot spots.
Cricket Australia sent an urgent memo to all the media covering the first test that had visited the northern beaches in the past three weeks to contact them as soon as possible.
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However, Cricket Australia’s strict biosecurity protocols saved Mitchell Starc from being sensationally withdrawn from the first test.
Starc and his wife, Alyssa Healy, live on the northern beaches but were allowed to stay in Adelaide despite arriving after December 11th.
Starc and Healy received exemption from the South Australian government due to CA’s strict protocols requiring the couple to self-isolate for three days before rejoining the Australian test bubble after Starc took leave due to a family illness.
“This is exactly why we have had the players in Bubbles and Hubs all summer and have already had an extremely successful summer,” Nick Hockley, CEO of Interim Cricket Australia, told SEN this week.
