KOCHI: The Covid-19 outbreak has affected the lives of millions of people worldwide in many different ways. However, in former Kerala cricketer Sachin Mohan's case, it was not the virus but the lab which tested him that threw his dreams into disarray. And the swashbuckling batsman is bracing himself to challenge the efficacies of these lab reports.
The 31-year-old, who last played for Kerala in 2016, was targeting a return to the state team ahead of the new domestic season after overcoming injuries.
The Thiruvananthapuram native had hoped to use the recently concluded KCA Club Championship as an opportunity to try and catch the attention of the selectors.
That's when a sequence of events threw his plans out of gear. Sachin alleged that he was wrongly declared to be positive.
The Kerala Cricket Association created a robust bio-bubble to hold the T20 tournament and the players and staff needed to be vaccinated and required negative RT-PCR test results to participate in the Championship.
Sachin initially took a test on August 25 at the DDRC Lab (Government), Thiruvananthapuram.
The result was negative but the tournament was pushed back by a few days due to rain and the cricketer took another test on August 30 which came out positive.
"After the first test, I was very careful and tried to take all possible precautions. It was hard to understand where I got the virus from. But I went into quarantine because I didn't want to put my family or anyone else at risk. At that point, I didn't suspect anything," said Sachin.
However, according to him, since there were no symptoms of Covid-19, he decided to check again.
"I waited a few days and got myself tested again at NIMS lab this time. And my result was negative. I checked again and the result was negative. I'm trying to understand how one can be tested negative just four days after being positive," questioned Sachin while raising the accuracy of the tests being done.
For the cricketer, it meant that his comeback plans had to be put on hold. And he is unable to join his workplace
"I was trying to use this tournament as a platform to try and make a comeback. In recent times, the Kerala team hasn't really settled on players when it comes to openers, with a lot of options tried. I felt that a few good performances would get me an opportunity, but by the time all this played out, the tournament was over. It was a very important tournament for me, because in the last few years, there were little to no opportunities in terms of tournaments," he said.
In fact, he was the captain of Kids Cricket Club who participated in the T20 tournament. Sachin intends to take this issue up and seek legal action.
"The reason why I'm taking this up is because such negligence and discrepancies can have massive consequences on the lives of people who are already terrified of the virus," he said.
Attempts to contact the DDRC were unsuccessful as the calls went unanswered.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Cricket Association opined that the safety of players was paramount and they could do little in Sachin's case.
"We went by the protocols and we couldn't put the safety of the other players or those inside the bio-bubble at risk. What Sachin experienced is unfortunate," said KCA official Ramesh S.