Cricket fans were at their creative best as they sported some cool face masks on Day 1 of the third Test between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground, on Thursday.
The Indian fans added a bit of colour with their tricolour masks as some Australian fans were fully suited up in protective PPE-style kits. Neither the masks nor the PPE kits stopped the fans from their enjoying their drinks on a cool morning at the SCG.
The New South Wales government has made it mandatory for fans to wear face masks at all times except when eating or drinking during the course of the Test.
The Test will be played in front of a crowd of some 10,000 people to allow social distancing in a ground that can hold 48,000 after an outbreak of COVID-19 in Sydney.
New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard said New South Wales had no option but to impose the measure after health officials in Victoria state said a man who attended the second Test might have contracted COVID-19 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Mask-wearing in indoor public spaces was made mandatory in Sydney for the first time on Sunday with fines of A$200 ($155) for anyone in breach of the directive.
Residents from certain parts of Sydney deemed to have a higher virus-risk have been banned from attending the game, with two more suburbs added on Wednesday.
Fans from rural areas have been also banned from attending to avoid the risk of them taking the virus back to areas so far unaffected.
