Chief minister and Gujarat Cricket Association president Narendra Modi with Harbhajan Singh before the first ODI, in Vadodara

Calcutta: Some of New Zealand’s cricketers may have insisted on boarding the first flight home and a few of the Englishmen would probably have got themselves admitted into the nearest medical facility.

Driven by panic, of course.

The touring Australian team, though, hasn’t been perturbed by news that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who’d been introduced to them (and the hosts) before the first ODI, in Vadodara, has tested positive for swine flu.

Besides heading the government, Modi is the president of the Gujarat Cricket Association and last Sunday’s match, won by Australia, was the first ODI in his state after he got involved in cricket administration, a few months ago.

“We’ve had injuries and so on, but nobody has shown symptoms of swine flu... At this stage, we don’t intend getting tests done on anybody... We do wish the chief minister a speedy recovery,” media manager Lachy Patterson told The Telegraph, when he was contacted in New Delhi on Friday.

The Australians, incidentally, are travelling with a doctor — Damien McCann. With many having been exposed to Modi, one expects Dr McCann to be more ‘vigilant’ from now on.

Strangely, even hours after the news broke, a senior Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official wasn’t aware of Modi’s illness.

“I didn’t know about the swine flu bit... As far as I’m aware, nobody in the BCCI has thought of putting our players through tests, purely as a precautionary measure… Nothing has been discussed,” the official said.

Modi had left for Moscow immediately after meeting the teams in Vadodara and returned home on Wednesday. He’s been ill since then.

While swine flu has claimed a number of lives in the country (and across the world), its early detection has helped save thousands more.