After Kane Richardson and Adam Zampa had to find a way via Doha, complexities are only increasing for Australians returning home from India.
The Australian government, who have banned all flights from India till May 15 and even from diverted routes of middle-east have now put a more stringent outcome for those returning home to Australia seeing the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases in India.
Australian citizens or residents, who have been in India for 14 days from the start of their travel will be banned from travelling back home starting Monday and disobeying could lead to a five-year jail term or hefty fines. The temporary emergency decision was taken on Sunday in view of the crisis India is going through COVID-19, which makes returning home for citizens a criminal offence.
This could put the Australian cricketers, who are currently part of the Indian Premier League (IPL), travel plans in jeopardy and could land them up in jail or they would have to pay hefty fines, once the tournament is over by the end of May. Not just the 14 cricketers including the likes of David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis but also the likes of Ricky Ponting, Damien Wright, David Hussey and Brett Lee, who are part of the support staff of their respective sides or commentary panel with the host broadcaster.
Australia's Health Minister Greg Hunt in a statement said, "The government does not make these decisions lightly. However, it is critical the integrity of the Australian public health and quarantine systems is protected and the number of COVID-19 cases in quarantine facilities is reduced to a manageable level."
"Failure to comply with an emergency determination under the Biosecurity Act, 2015 may incur a civil penalty of 300 penalty units, five years' imprisonment or both. The CMO will consider the epidemiology in India and likely impacts on Australia's quarantine capacity, and provide a further expert assessment of the public health risk to Australia to inform a proportionate response,” the statement further said.
However, the ministry will review the restrictions on May 15 again.
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