EXCLUSIVE: Cricket legend Ian Chappell in limbo despite receiving negative COVID-19 test result

Australian cricket legend Ian Chappell has tested negative to COVID-19 and is now "waiting for some bastard" to tell him what to do next.

When the former Test captain was made to leave Adelaide Oval during the opening match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series - he lives on the Northern Beaches of Sydney - it made for remarkable news.

Chappell had been booted from a venue at which a grandstand is named after him.

The 75-Test great was last night told he had tested negative but says his next moves are uncertain.

"Well, I'm waiting for some bastard to tell me. But I'm hopefully on the plane tomorrow (back to Sydney)," Chappell told Wide World of Sports.

"I've got no chance of being there at the Boxing Day Test (on commentary duty). I'd say we're going to have to do it with a Melbourne-only crew."

Chappell is among a host of figures in Australian cricket whose professional lives have been rattled by the outbreak on the Northern Beaches.

Former Australian paceman Brett Lee is a Northern Beaches resident and last Friday rushed home from Adelaide Oval, where he had been commentating, to avoid missing out on Christmas with his family.

Shortly after, Sydney-based Test squad members David Warner and Sean Abbott were flown to Melbourne early, so they could quarantine ahead of the arrival of the rest of the squad for the Boxing Day Test.

The outbreak also wreaked havoc for a host of Northern Beaches residents employed by broadcasters Fox and Seven, as well as Cricket Australia staff.

Cricket Australia is determined to keep the New Year Test at its traditional venue - the SCG - but the surge of the virus in Sydney could force the governing body to relocate the third Test.

"It's been a bizarre year," Chappell said.

"You've just got to get on with life - that's how I've always been. Whatever you've got to do, you've got to do it."