India-Australia women's ODI series postponed indefinitely
A three-match ODI series between the Australian and Indian women's cricket teams has been postponed indefinitely and is not expected to take place until 2022.
The recent Covid-19 outbreak in Australia, and more specifically in Sydney, has resulted in some states imposing travel restrictions. As per Governmental protocol, all international passengers arriving in the island country must mandatorily quarantine themselves for 14 days.
The 3-match ODI series was originally scheduled to commence on January 22 at Canberra. The second and the third ODI was scheduled for January 25 and January 28 at Melbourne and Hobart, respectively.
CA confirms three T20I matches would be added to the Indian women's tour of Australia
The governing board of cricket in Australia, Cricket Australia (CA) said the matches will be postponed until next season. CA further added that three Twenty20 matches would also be included in the tour later.
This development means the India women, the runners-up in the last ODI and T20 World Cups, will be out of action for more 10 months at a stretch. The team's last cricket match was during the T20 World Cup final on 8 March 2020.
The Australian women's team won that game by 85 runs in front of over 86,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This also happened to be the biggest attendance for any women's sporting event in Australia.
“We are very hopeful of delivering an expanded schedule between the Australian and Indian women’s teams for next season, which would be an outstanding result for fans in both countries,” Cricket Australia's interim CEO Nick Hockley said in a statement.
Hockley further added by saying “We had initially hoped to play India this summer, however the impact of the global pandemic made it necessary to postpone until next season."
It remains to be seen when exactly the Indian women's team will play international cricket again.