Victorian team in quarantine ahead of Marsh Sheffield Shield

Cricket Australia today confirmed all states will relocate to South Australia from next month.

The Victorian players are currently serving an initial quarantine period at home in Melbourne before boarding a chartered flight to Adelaide on October 5. The squad will then serve another 14-day quarantine period when they land.

All players and support staff are undergoing multiple COVID-19 tests both in Melbourne prior to departure and following their arrival in South Australia.

Throughout the quarantine period in South Australia, Victoria’s players will stay at the Adelaide Oval hotel and will be able to train under strict public health guidelines at the venue.

Victoria will take a travelling squad of approximately 18 players to Adelaide and begin against New South Wales on October 22 at Adelaide Oval No. 2.

Victoria’s original opening round fixture against New South Wales will take place at a future date to be confirmed in light of the required quarantine periods.

“It has been a unique pre-season but we have been fortunate to be able to maintain our training schedule and conditioning during the COVID-19 lockdown. We’ve been working closely with Cricket Australia throughout this process to deliver a schedule outcome that is fair to Victoria given the quarantine periods involved for us,” Cricket Victoria’s General Manager – Cricket Shaun Graf said.

“We’ll take an extended squad of players with us to Adelaide to give us scope to make changes over these first few matches where or as we need to. Despite the challenges, I know all the players are keen to get out on the park and play some real cricket,” Graf added.

From a squad perspective Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell and James Pattinson are all unavailable while representing their Indian Premier League teams in the UAE.

The remainder of the Marsh Sheffield Shield season, along with the Women’s National Cricket League, Marsh One-Day Cup and Under-19 Female and Male National Championships will be played in 2021.

The Victorian travelling squad will be finalised closer to the departure date.

Marsh Sheffield Shield Fixture – Victoria
Round 2 – October 22-25: Victoria v New South Wales, Adelaide Oval No. 2
Round 3 – October 30-November 2: Victoria v Tasmania, Park 25
Round 4 – November 8-11: Queensland v Victoria, Karen Rolton Oval
Round 1 – TBA: New South Wales v Victoria, venue TBC