Amid coronavirus pandemic, many countries are facing lockdown and due to which loads of cricket tournaments have either been postponed or cancelled. However, now many cricketers and experts are concerned over the future of this game, especially regarding the safety measures in order to stop the COVID spread.
Discussing the red-hot topic, England’s veteran seamer James Anderson said that he and his England teammates would not be pleasant returning to play the game if it takes away the crucial coronavirus tests from key workers.
Anderson attended The Cricket Show on Sky Sports and stated that when the normalcy returns in cricket, anyone present at the ground wherever a game takes place would need to be tested for COVID-19, be it if they are players, ground staff members, broadcasters or caterers.
“Over the coming weeks, we’ll have more chats as players and the ECB in general. I’m sure they are being guided by the government on what we can and can’t do, and what the likelihood is of us actually getting some cricket in,” said Anderson during the chat as quoted by SkySports.
“As players, we definitely wouldn’t be comfortable if that was the case – there’s still a serious situation in the UK, and we’re taking tests away from people who actually need them in vital areas,” added England’s leading Test wicket-taker of all time.
“So I wouldn’t like to see anything like that, and I also think that as much as everyone wants to get back to playing cricket and watching cricket, which would be fantastic, every sort of stone has got to be unturned in terms of ‘is it the right thing to do morally’ and the obvious safety issues that there could still be about this virus still being around,” Anderson added further.
Anderson also agreed on the fact that once the cricket returns, one of the significant worries would be contracting coronavirus at the ground, and then going home and passing it onto his family.
“Of course, that would be a worry. We’re talking about how many times would we have to be tested during a match? Would it be every two or three days – not just in a match but leading up to it? And how long are we together in this bio-secure environment before and after the games? So there’s lots to be talked about, and I’m sure there are lots of meetings going on with people who are better skilled than I am to talk about it,” concluded the Burnley Express.
Speaking about cricketing fixtures in England, then all professional matches are postponed in England and Wales until July 1, while the launch of The Hundred – the title of a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament in England and Wales run by the ECB – has been put back until 2021.
