Sheldon Cottrell, Roston Chase and Kyle Mayers are among four members of the West Indies touring party who have tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in Pakistan on December 9. The trio, along with a non-coaching member of the team management, will undergo self-isolation and will subsequently be unavailable for the three-match T20I series, which begins in Karachi on Monday.
The touring squad landed in Karachi in a commercial flight from the Caribbean via Dubai, and have been confined to their rooms since then. The four members tested positive in the initial tests that were done after arrival.
Johnny Grave, the CEO of Cricket West Indies, confirmed that the tour will go ahead as scheduled despite the Covid-19 cases.
"Our arrival testing protocols in Pakistan have confirmed four (4) Covid-19 positives," Grave said. "These were confirmed whilst the players and staff were still in room isolation, so despite this significant setback to our preparation plans, we are confident that the tour can continue as everyone else returned negative PCRs prior to their arrival into Pakistan and two negative PCRs since they have been in Karachi.
"The risk of Covid-19 infection is impossible to remove completely from a cricket tour, in spite of the fact that many of our players have been living in bio-secure bubbles almost continuously since before the CPL. This unusual loss of three players from our squad will seriously impact our team preparations, but the rest of the squad are in good spirits and will begin training today ahead of our first game on Monday."
A CWI media release added that "all four members are fully vaccinated and are without major symptoms". But they will stay in isolation for 10 days and will not be allowed to join the main group until they return negative tests. They will be monitored by Dr. Akshai Mansingh, the team physician.
The absence of Cottrell, Chase and Mayers further depletes a West Indies team that is already without many of their senior players. While regular captain Kieron Pollard has been sidelined with injury, Andre Russell is in Australia playing the Big Bash League.
Karachi will host the entire white-ball series, which comprises three T20Is and three ODIs, the last of which is on December 22.