'We all have a choice': Justin Langer's swipe at India over hotel quarantine concerns
Australian coach Justin Langer has taken a thinly-veiled swipe at the Indian cricket team after their reported displeasure at having to endure hotel quarantine in Brisbane.
Both India and Australia will be subjected to tighter biosecurity protocols ahead of the third Test due to Sydney's COVID-19 outbreak, as well as in Queensland for the fourth Test where they have received exemptions to travel across the border.
Despite fears that India would boycott the Brisbane Test, discussions between CA officials and their BCCI counterparts appear to have eased the tourists' concerns.
After India had expressed their reluctance to be subjected to strict protocols in Brisbane, Langer reminded both the tourists and his own squad that representing your country was a privilege, not a right.
Australia coach Justin Langer after game one of the Twenty20 series. Cricket Australia via Getty Imag
"We all have a choice, that's one thing," the Australia coach said on Tuesday.
"No one has got a God-given right to play for Australia and for their country. Every one of us can step outside of it. I have been very consistent in saying that if anyone can deal with it cricketers can because that's how we live most of our lives anyway.
"So, in the next little bit, we have arrived in Sydney, we have the main session [on Tuesday] and a top-up session [on Wednesday], which is consistent with what we always do, and then we are playing cricket. Then we arrive in Brisbane and do the same thing.
"It is not much different to what we are used to. It's a little bit tighter than general but we will get on with it.
Will Pucovski could make his long-awaited Test debut for Australia in Thursday's third Test Getty
"We know how important this Test series is. India beat us here [in Australia] last time and we want to make amends for that and we want to keep moving our journey forward and the only way you can do that is by concentrating on what we can and that's playing great cricket in this third Test match in Sydney."
Under Cricket Australia's biosecurity protocols, both teams will be allowed to go anywhere inside their hotel in Sydney.
However, the protocols still remain unclear for the fourth Test in Brisbane, with the rules to be dictated by the Queensland government.
