• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Josh Little Called Up By Ireland After Four Players Test Positive Ahead Of Us Windies Tour

Josh Little called up by Ireland after four players test positive ahead of US-Windies tour

Onecricket

Irish fast bowler Joshua Little who is currently plying his trade in the Lanka Premier League 2021, has been called up to bolster the squad that has left for the combined tour of the United States and West Indies which will begin December 22. 

According to a Cricket Ireland media release, four players i.e. Barry McCarthy, George Dockrell, Harry Tector and Gareth Delany have tested positive in the pres series testing and fast bowler Craig Young was identified as a close contact of Covid-19 positive persons and has therefore not been allowed to travel with the team. 

While McCarthy and Dockrell tested positive during pre-series testing, Tector and Delany, who have been in Florida playing the US T20 Open tournament-tested positive before linking up with the side which landed in Miami a few days ago. The pair have begun their 10-day in-room isolation already. McCarthy and Dockrell are also expected to link up with their teammates in the USA soon. 

Along with players, Assistant coach Gary Wilson has also not been able to travel with the team after he received a false positive report on his pre-series Covid test. The former Irish international is being re-tested, and if clear, will fly out on Sunday.

"We are pleased to have our squad arrive in Miami and are all looking forward to the series ahead,” Richard Holdsworth, high-performance director for Cricket Ireland, said. 

"We have experienced a few last-minute complications related to COVID, but with the extended travelling squad that we have taken, and the recall of Josh Little from Sri Lanka, we don't foresee any issues with the series proceeding as scheduled,” he further added. 

After playing three ODIs and two T20Is in the US, the Irish team will travel to the Caribbean and play West Indies in three ODIs, between January 8 and 14, and a one-off T20I scheduled for January 17.

Discover more

Top Stories
news

ICC clarifies England to lose eight World Test Championship points after slow over rate at Gabba

There is no end of misery for England as the International Cricket Council (ICC) has clarified that they will be docked eight World Test Championship points instead of five as announced earlier for falling short of the required over-rate in the first Ashes Test played in Brisbane. The global governing body said that England fell short of the optimum over rate by eight overs and not five and hence they will be denied exactly the same number of points as the number of overs they failed to bowl. Earlier, after the end of the Gabba Test that ended in a big loss for the Joe Root-led side, the ICC had announced a fine of 100 per cent match fees of Root and company and five World Test Championship points. “However, the points deduction for penalty overs is not capped and must reflect the actual number of penalty overs a team is short of the minimum requirement as per Clause 16.1.2 of the ICC Playing Conditions, hence they have been penalised one point for each over they were short,” said the ICC in a statement. “As per Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, up to a maximum fine of 100 per cent of the match fee,” it added. England are already 0-1 down in the five-match long Ashes series in Australia and they are not in the best position in the ongoing Day-Night Test in Adelaide.