The Australian players, coaches and commentary staff who were in the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) arrived in Sydney on Monday from the Maldives and will be in quarantine for 14 days.
National broadcaster ABC reported that players including Steve Smith and David Warner were on board an Air Seychelles plane that touched down in Sydney about 7:30 am local time.
A group of 38 players, coaches, officials and TV commentators had reportedly been staying in the Maldives, after leaving India on 6 May aboard a charter flight arranged and paid for by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
The cricketers had gone to the Maldives after the suspension of the tournament as the Australian government had imposed a travel ban on travellers from India due to the COVID-19 situation in the country.
The group was escorted by police to quarantine hotels across Sydney after landing, according to nine.com.
Meanwhile, former Australia batsman Mike Hussey, who had tested positive for the virus, is expected to arrive in Sydney later on Monday in a flight from Qatar.
While the Australians involved in the IPL flew to the Maldives on May 6 via a charter flight, Hussey was transported from Delhi to Chennai where he stayed while recovering from the virus.
The New South Wales Government conceded it lifted its strict cap of 3000 returned travellers to cater for the cricket players.
"We always make sure that we have 3,000 Australians returning home every week and police and Health make an assessment if requests are made over and above that cap, we make those assessments," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye and Kane Richardson had left their IPL teams ahead of the larger Australian contingent, and were due to have completed quarantine last week.
The IPL started in early April with the decision to go ahead in the face of a deepening health crisis prompting criticism from some observers, while others defended it as a welcome distraction for the embattled Indian public.
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