A fresh COVID-19 outbreak within the managed environment has forced the three-match One Day International series between the USA and Ireland to be called off.
As of Tuesday at noon, the two boards had not put out an official statement, but the two teams did not show up for their training sessions as stadium ground staff and workers began disassembling hospitality and advertising signage at Broward County Stadium throughout the morning and early afternoon.
Multiple sources have confirmed that the ODI series has been scrapped due to a number of positive COVID-19 tests in the traveling parties, and USA’s players were notified that their tickets were being booked to fly home on Tuesday.
After canceling the first One Day International because of a positive test among the ICC officiating crew, the second of the matches was initially postponed 24 hours after a string of positive tests on both teams including a member of Ireland’s support staff and a number of USA’s playing team, though the majority of them turned out to be false positives.
The teams were scheduled to train on Tuesday at the Broward County Stadium ahead of the delayed first match of the series yesterday. However, neither squad arrived at the stadium.
Multiple sources said that even though no Ireland players tested positive in a fresh round of PCR tests, multiple members of the Ireland support staff, as well as partners and family members of Ireland players tested positive, meaning that a large number of Ireland players were deemed to be close contacts.
According to sources, after numerous waves of retests following the false positives that came out of the USA camp, only one new player returned a positive PCR test. But the fact that it was a player meant that the entire USA team was also deemed to be close contacts.
The off-field discipline of the traveling parties is also a cause for scrutiny. The majority of the USA players were kept to their hotel rooms throughout the staging of the series as a consequence of a number of early positive COVID-19 tests ahead of the first Twenty/20 International on 22nd December.
However, the Ireland squad members are understood to have been allowed to leave the team hotel periodically throughout the past week, including on Christmas Day, and were allowed to mix and mingle with traveling family members and partners. It was only after the first Ireland support staff member tested positive on 27th December that Ireland’s players went into full isolation mode in their hotel rooms.
