In what comes off as further bad news for Sri Lankan cricket, the team’s batting coach Grant Flower has tested positive for COVID-19. A member of Sri Lanka’s medical staff has revealed that they are yet to find out how Flower contracted the virus and the variant he has been affected with.
It has been an extremely difficult last few months for Sri Lankan cricket. It started off with the pay dispute, the trio of Kusal Mendis, Danushka Gunathilaka and Niroshan Dickwella was found guilty of breaching the bio-bubble in England and was suspended, then there was an end to the annual contract list dispute with Angelo Mathews threatening to quit, and there was also a change in the captaincy of the side.
And now, to add to the misery, Sri Lanka’s batting coach Grant Flower has tested positive for COVID-19. Though he hasn’t been in close proximity with the players given the squad members and the support staff have been isolated separately on returning from England.
However, it can threaten the series given there are chances that Flower might well have been infected by the virus in England, which recently left as many as seven personnel in the England team positive, and forced the Three Lions to name and field a weakened side against Pakistan. Flower was in the same bubble as the team in the UK.
“We have to find out how Flower got infected, and also which variant of the virus he has been infected with,” a member of Sri Lanka’s medical staff told ESPNcricinfo.
The team was originally slated to go into a bubble from Friday onwards but now that might well be in jeopardy. If it turns out that Flower has contracted the infectious Delta variant, there may well be an impact on the series that is set to start from July 13 in Colombo against India.
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