Mushtaq Ali T20: Chandigarh boys await Covid-19 test result in Chennai

CHENNAI: Off to Chennai to play the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, the Chandigarh team is awaiting results of their first Covid-19 test, which the entire contingent underwent on Saturday.
While all the members of the squad and the support staff had undergone Covid-19 tests before boarding the flight to the Tamil Nadu capital city, the BCCI protocol demands three tests on January 2, January 4 and January 6, ahead of the start of the tournament from January 10.According to the BCCI, the results of each test were to be declared the subsequent day.
However, when TOI spoke to a few players from various sides, currently in Chennai, most of them were awaiting the results.
“We got tested on Saturday, and were told that the results will be out by Sunday evening. We are still awaiting the results, but we are all making sure of being confined to our rooms,” said one player on the condition of anonymity.
When contacted, Bihar skipper Ashutosh Aman had the same reply, “No, we are still awaiting the results.”
Another player from Arunachal Pradesh said all the members of his side had tested negative and they are set to be re-tested on Monday.
“We got tested back home twice and then in Chennai, thankfully all the members had tested negative. Probably there’s another test coming up on Monday. We are confined to our individual rooms, and only interacting with our teammates virtually,” the player said.
“The weather is warm here and it was raining here on Sunday, but the SOPs demand that we stay put in our rooms. We don’t want to take any chances, the focus is on giving it our best in the tournament,” he added.
Clubbed alongside Bihar, and the Northeastern states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, the Chandigarh team finds itself in the Plate Group.
Ahead of their departure to Chennai, the team’s head coach VRV Singh had made his intentions clear, and said that the side’s main focus will be to top the group.
“At the moment the main priority is the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Tournament, and our aim is to win all the matches. It doesn’t matter in which group we are in, but the aim will be to do better in each and every game,” he had told TOI.
“The main target is to get out of the Plate group. It’s been a long time (out of cricket), so match fitness of each player becomes very crucial and that is one aspect which we will be looking into during the camp,” he further reiterated.