Sri Lankan team’s data analyst GT Niroshan has tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the limited overs series against India, the country’s cricket board said on Friday (July 9), a day after its batting coach Grant Flower contracted the virus. Niroshan is currently being treated as per the medical protocols. “The Data Analyst of the Sri Lanka National Team, GT Niroshan, has tested positive for COVID-19,” Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said in a statement.
“He was found to be positive, following a PCR Test carried out among the National Players, Coaches, and Support Staff yesterday, following the identification of Grant Flower as Covid Positive. Niroshan is now undergoing due medical protocols.”
On Thursday, Sri Lanka’s batting coach Flower tested positive for COVID-19, 48 hours after the squad's arrival from England and less than a week before the home series against India. Sri Lanka are set to take on India in a six-match white-ball series starting July 13. Flower had been isolated from the rest of the squad which is undergoing hard quarantine on arrival.
The SLC said Flower is ‘now undergoing due medical protocols.’
All the other players who are quarantining have also been tested. Flower is a former Zimbabwe batting great and was with the team in England where it lost both the T20 International and ODI series.
It has not been clarified as to how Flower got infected as he was in the team bubble and also returned by the same charter carrying the Lankan contingent. Already, three Sri Lankan players are facing an inquiry for breaching the COVID-19 protocols in UK during the tour. They are Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Mendis and Dhanushka Gunathilake.
The trio was seen roaming around in Durham outside the team bubble and all three were promptly send back home even before the completion of the tour. The SLC has already announced a five-member inquiry panel comprising Justice Nimal Dissanayaka (Retd Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka), Panduka Keerthinanda (Attorney-at-Law), Asela Rekawa (Attorney-at-Law), Uchitha Wickremasinghe (Attorney-at-Law), Major General (Retd) M.R.W. De Zoysa.
The three players were suspended from all forms of cricket, pending the completion of the inquiry.
