Bipin Dani
Visiting England team and Sri Lankan team (on arrival from South Africa) will not only be required to give PCR tests but also Rapid Antigen Detection Tests (RADT) when they reach Sri Lanka early next month. This was revealed by Prof. Arjuna de Silva, the chairman of the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) medical penal.
The Rapid Antigen Detection Test (RADT) for COVID-19 is a rapid point-of-care nasopharyngeal swab test that directly detects the presence or absence of coronavirus antigen in the patient’s body, generating diagnosis results within 30 minutes. These tests are designed to detect a specific protein in the virus that elicits the body’s immune response.
Shahid Afridi was the last known cricketer to give RAT in Sri Lanka before he was exempted from completing the 7-day compulsory quarantine period and was allowed ro play for Galle Gladiators in the Lanka Premier league (LPL). “We are concerned about the new strain of Covid-19 that is believed to have emerged in England and every precaution will be taken to ensure that only the safe players enter our country”, de Silva, speaking exclusively over the telephone from Colombo, said.
“At present the England’s two-Test tour of Sri Lanka is not in doubt but we are awaiting more updates from the health ministry in the coming week”.
England players are scheduled to train in Hambantota for a few days (Jan. 6-9) before they travel to Galle and train simultaneously with the Sri Lankan team (Jan. 10-13).
Both the Test matches (January 14-18 and Jan. 22-26) will be played at the Galle International Stadium.
In the meantime, the Sri Lankan players and the support staff gave 3rd PCR tests on Thursday before they left for the training in the afternoon.
It is the last before the first Test beginning on December 26. One more after the first Test will be on 31st December, it is learnt here.
The team also had a Xmas dinner party on Thursday evening.
