UAE and Oman to return home early from Namibia amid Omicron COVID variant fears
Stadium (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Oman cricket teams will be returning home early from Windhoek on Monday (November 29) due to the emergence of the Omicron strain of Coronavirus in the African region. The CWC league 2 trilateral series between Namibia, Oman, and UAE has been postponed due to the rapid spread of the virus. The UAE also announced the suspension of inbound flights from numerous African countries.
There are also entry restrictions on passengers who had passed through Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, or Mozambique. Not only UAE, but England, and United States of America, and the European Union have also imposed restrictions for the travelers returning from respective African countries. The Women’s World Cup Qualifier, which got underway in Zimbabwe was called off.
The ODI series between South Africa and the Netherlands was also called off. The Omani and Emirati teams are going on the same flight charted by ICC as the teams are returning home from the Women’s Qualifiers in Harare. The Netherlands team are in South Africa and will likely depart soon.
Speaking about the CWC league to tri-series, Oman and Namibia shared points in the first two ODIs, the first of which was one of the additional matches scheduled to replace those following the death of Omani Sultan Qaboos during the fourth round of competition, which took place in 2019.
Only seven of the 21 scheduled series have been completed since August 2019. The remaining 14 series would have to be completed before the 2023 World Cup Qualifier. It remains to seen how the matches will be played after the emergence of Omicron. It looks likely that the league will not be completed.
