CRICKET West Indies (CWI) CEO Johnny Grave said the board tries to make the bio-secure bubbles as safe and as strict as possible to protect players from covid19, but it is impossible to alleviate all the risks.
Nine members of the West Indies camp tested positive for covid19 on their tour of Pakistan, including six players.
West Indies and Pakistan completed the three-match T20 series on Thursday, but on the same day CWI and the Pakistan Cricket Board decided to postpone the three-match One Day International (ODI) series to June 2022. It had been scheduled to bowl off on Saturday.
Before the T20 series began, CWI revealed last Saturday that Roston Chase, Kyle Mayers and Sheldon Cottrell had contracted the virus.
On Wednesday, the day before the third T20, three more players tested positive - Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein and Justin Greaves.
In audio provided by CWI on Thursday, Grave said, 'It has been a very difficult past 24 hours for everyone, particularly the players and the support staff out in Pakistan. Obviously getting more covid cases caused even more anxiety amongst the players, especially being this close to Christmas and being away from home in bio-secure bubbles - very difficult environment for such a long period of time.'
Grave thanked the players for completing the T20 series.
'Enormously proud of all the players for their decision that they made as a collective (group) earlier today (Thursday) to take the field this evening in Pakistan and complete the T20 part of this tour.'
CWI tries to ensure that the bio-secure bubbles during the pandemic are as safe as possible, he said.
'Covid has taught us that we can never mitigate all the risks, we can only plan and mitigate what we can do, and certainly from a Cricket West Indies perspective, we've been working hard to create these bio-bubbles and to manage them as safely and as strictly as we can, but also understanding that it is a very tough environment for the players to be in.'
Grave, who thanked the PCB for the support, said completing the ODI series would have been challenging because of the limited number of players West Indies have available because of the covid19 cases.
He said the safety and security of the players will always be a priority.
Last month, the West Indies women were competing in the International Cricket Council 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe. But the tournament was brought to a halt because of the new covid19 variant omicron in South Africa and the introduction of travel restrictions from a number of African countries, including Zimbabwe.
Grave reflected on what has been a rough period for West Indies teams.
'Obviously it has been a difficult few weeks for us with the women's team having to come home from Zimbabwe…luckily the women's team are all now back in the Caribbean. The last few players have just landed today in Guyana.'
After leaving Zimbabwe the West Indies women's team spent a week and a half in Oman before returning to the Caribbean.
The post Grave: CWI makes covid19 bubbles
