New Zealand and Kolkata Knight Riders wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert broke down while sharing his experience of staying back in India after testing positive for coronavirus during IPL 2021, while the rest of the foreign players headed back home.
After the indefinite postpone of IPL 2021 due to a sudden spike in covid positive cases in its bio-bubble, KKR’s Seifert was one of the last overseas cricketers to leave India.
Now after coming back to New Zealand and being under strict quarantine, Seifert said his “heart sank straight away”, when a team official informed him of his positive test.
He told the reporters in a video call from hotel quarantine in Auckland, “The world kind of stops a little bit.” “I just couldn’t really think what was next. And that was the scary part of it.’ Seifert then was unable to control his emotions and needed a moment to compose himself before going on.
What gets Tim Seifert through days in quarantine? 🥘
He’ll fill you in as he counts down to his MIQ release mid next week 👍#CricketNation #Cricket pic.twitter.com/QO9BK7U1bf
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) May 25, 2021
Seifert then was unable to control his emotions and needed a moment to compose himself before going on.
“You hear about the bad things, and I thought that was going to happen to me.”
“The news (in India) is all about a lack of oxygen, you don’t know if you’re going to be in that situation,” he said.
“It’s just the whole unknown of what COVID is, how you’re going to react to it.”
Seifert said he experienced mild symptoms but the stress had put the biggest challenge on him. He was among four the KKR cricketers who tested positive for coronavirus including, Varun Chakravarthy, Sandeep Warrier and Prasidh Krishna were the others.
Seifert is yet to make his IPL debut; he said the experience had not turned him off returning to India for the Twenty20 World Cup in October though the global tournament may be in doubt if the country is unable to overcome a devastating second wave of the coronavirus.
“To be honest, the whole time while I was over there, the bubble felt good … felt safe,” he said.
