The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is currently suspended amid the ongoing COVID crisis in the country. All the teams along with BCCI made sure that everyone reached home safely. Around 37 Australian cricketers including coaches, commentators and officials are currently in the Maldives completing their quarantine period. Australia has currently banned travellers from India and made it a criminal offence.
BCCI decided to fly all the IPL bound Australian players to the Maldives. Over there they can complete their mandatory 14-day quarantine before flying home. While everything was going fine, all of them were rattled by a sonic boom of Chinese rocket debris which crashed into the Indian Ocean on Sunday.
China launched a module to set up its first permanent space station in orbit on April 29. However, it was already known that the rockets carrying the module would return to the earth’s atmosphere around May 8 or 9 (Saturday or Sunday). The China Manned Space Engineering Office had also expressed fears of the falling debris causing the damage.
Moreover, the uncontrolled entry into the earth’s atmosphere has led to some remnants falling in few locations in the Maldives also while the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has criticised the move.
We heard the bang at 5:30 AM – IPL-bound Australia cricketer
IPL bound Australia cricketer David Warner came forward and spoke to The Australian about this incident. He said that they heard a loud bang at around 5:30 AM (Maldives Time) on Sunday.
“We heard the bang around 5:30 AM this morning (Sunday). Experts say the noise we heard is the crack in the atmosphere which sets off a wave of sound not the actual impact of the rocket,” he said.
The events which took place on Sunday have left all the Australian cricketers worried. They continue to quarantine in their hotel rooms. The cricketers will be hoping to return to their country back to their families in a safe environment.
