{"id":70783,"date":"2021-05-13T10:18:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T10:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=70783"},"modified":"2021-05-13T14:59:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T14:59:23","slug":"masterplan-arrives-for-stranded-aussie-ipl-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=70783","title":{"rendered":"Masterplan arrives for stranded Aussie IPL stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia's cricketers and support staff quarantining in the Maldives<\/a> after fleeing coronavirus-ravaged India after the suspension of the Indian Premier League<\/a> could be back on home soil by as soon as Sunday.<\/p>\n

India's chief T20 franchise competition was suspended last Tuesday as the country's devastating COVID-19 numbers continued to soar, prompting the 38 Australian cricketers and support crew members to relocate to the Maldives and begin quarantining in a resort.<\/p>\n

But Nine reporter Chris O'Keefe reported on Thursday night that a deal had been struck with the NSW government for Australia's IPL contingent to fly to Sydney via Kuala Lumpur on the weekend.<\/p>\n

A crucial part of the deal is for the 38-person party to be spread over multiple Sydney hotels so they don't steal rare beds in hotel quarantine.<\/p>\n

Among the cricketers trapped in the Maldives are former Australian captain Steve Smith, opening batsman David Warner, fast bowler Pat Cummins<\/a> and the legendary Ricky Ponting, who's the coach of the Delhi Capitals.<\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/p>\n

Australia's borders will reopen to India on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Former Australian opening batsman Michael Slater, who had flown to India to commentate on the IPL, slammed Australian prime minister Scott Morrison<\/a> when he closed the country's borders to India from May 3.<\/p>\n

The former 74-Test star labelled Morrison's decision "a disgrace" and said the leader had blood on his hands.<\/p>\n

Morrison struck back at Slater on the Today show, branding his comments "absurd" and saying the call to close Australia's borders to India was about "preventing a third wave".<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

There are still 8000 Australians stranded in India during a time that O'Keefe described as "pandemic hell".<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia's cricketers and support staff quarantining in the Maldives after fleeing coronavirus-ravaged India after the suspension of the Indian Premier League could be back on […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70785,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70783\/revisions\/70785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}