Indian Premier League: Australian players, coaches and commentators fly to Maldives

Steve Smith and Pat CumminsBCCI

Steve Smith (left) and Pat Cummins are among 38 Australians at the Indian Premier League

Australian players, coaches and commentators have left the Indian Premier League and flown to the Maldives after the Twenty20 tournament was suspended.

Australia has closed its borders to travellers from India until 15 May after a surge in Covid-19 cases.

The group will stay in the Maldives until the travel ban is finished.

Chennai Super Kings batting coach Mike Hussey has remained in India after testing positive for the virus.

A Cricket Australia statement said the former batsman is experiencing "mild symptoms" and will undergo a 10-day quarantine.

The Australians involved at the IPL will have to quarantine for 14 days when they return home.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India unanimously decided to postpone the tournament after a meeting on Tuesday.

Two Kolkata Knight Riders players and one from Sunrisers Hyderabad tested positive on Tuesday.

Former Test batsman Hussey is the only Australian to have tested positive for the virus so far.

"His symptoms are relatively mild," said Australian Cricketers' Association boss Todd Greenberg.

"He has good support systems around him and he is in pretty good spirits."

The Australian government has said it will fine or jail any individual returning home from India while the travel ban is in place.

Nick Hockley, Cricket Australia's interim chief executive, reiterated that they were not seeking "any kind of special exemptions" from the government, with Australia restricting the number of international arrivals allowed in each week.

"Any kind of quarantine arrangements would be over and above the cap," Hockley said.

"Our main priority is we would work with the Australian government and the relevant state governments to make sure that we're not taking spaces of anyone else that's available."

Australian trio Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson and Andrew Tye flew home in late April to avoid the ban.

Pace bowler Pat Cummins said the travel ban had added "a bit of anxiety" for the players.

"We knew we'd signed up for 14 days quarantine, but when the hard border shut no-one has ever experienced that before," Cummins told Fox Sports.

"[It has] added a bit of anxiety for the Aussies over here but we signed up to play the tournament until the start of June so hopefully it all reopens on 15 May."

There were more than 355,000 new cases of Covid-19 in India on Tuesday.

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