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West Indies-Australia ODI series to resume after no new Covid cases inside bubble

Australian players leave the ground after the match was called off AFP

The ODI series between West Indies and Australia will resume on Saturday with the final match now taking place on Monday after no further positive Covid-19 tests were reported in the bubble.

The second ODI was suspended moments before play was due to begin on Thursday with the toss having already taken place when a positive test came through from a non-playing member of the West Indies squad.

That game will now resume from the position it was halted with Australia batting first on Saturday and the teams remaining as named.

The two squads as well as match officials and TV crew were immediately returned to the hotel after the positive result on Thursday and put into room isolation where they were retested with all 152 coming back negative on Friday morning.

All those involved remained in isolation on Friday while negotiations went on between Cricket West Indies, Cricket Australia and health officials and further investigations took place over the source of the positive test.

"We are happy to be able to announce the restart of the CG Insurance ODI series at Kensington Oval tomorrow," Ricky Skerritt, the CWI president said. "We want to thank our counterparts at CA for their co-operation in this matter as we look to get the games going again.

"Special thanks to our CEO Johnny Grave, Chairman of Cricket Australia, Earl Eddings, his CEO Nick Hockley along with our respective medical and operations teams. I appreciate the crucial role of the BCA and the Government of Barbados for working closely with CWI to ensure everything is in place for resuming the series. "

"It has been a challenging two days and we have worked very swiftly and safely, following all the established medical protocols, to make sure that all necessary precautions are in place to ensure that we can go-ahead to resume play safely, tomorrow. We will continue to monitor the situation and respond accordingly."

With the ODI series now extended to Monday, CWI will have discussions with the Pakistan Cricket Board about potential adjustments to the T20I series which is due to start in Barbados on Tuesday.

Australia were already due to stay on the island for three days after the end of the one-day series before taking a charter fight to Dhaka ahead of the five-match T20I series against Bangladesh which was confirmed earlier this week.