Nine Covid-19 cases in the Canada Under-19 camp has ended their World Cup campaign in the Caribbean, with their remaining two Plate games now cancelled. Canada were scheduled to play the matches on Saturday and Sunday, but their infected players will now go into isolation.
Canada were scheduled to play two games in the Plate stage playoffs to determine ranks 13 to 16 in the competition. With their game against Scotland on Saturday now cancelled, Scotland will progress to the 13th/14th playoff against the winner of Uganda vs PNG.
Canada's other game - the 15th/16th playoff against the loser of Uganda vs PNG on Sunday - also stands cancelled.
""We are incredibly disappointed to have to cancel two ICC U19 Men's Cricket World Cup games due to COVID-19 at this stage of the event. We were expecting to see some positive cases throughout the event and to date, these have been managed in accordance with our biosafety plan without impacting on fixtures," Chris Tetley, ICC head of events, said in a media release. "However, with so many players from the Canadian team testing positive, it will not be possible to stage these games.
"The players are now self-isolating and will receive full support from the event medical team under the guidance of the Bio-Safety Advisory Group."
As per the tournament's playing conditions, players who test positive at the competition are expected to serve at least seven days of quarantine. Canada's positive cases are the fifth instance of players testing positive at the World Cup. Four Zimbabwe players had first tested positive before the tournament had started, followed by five cases in the India squad - who have all recovered for the knockouts - and then two players tested positive for West Indies, before another India player tested positive on Friday.