The Times - UK (2020-06-29)

50 2GM Monday June 29 2020 | the times

SportCricket

5

“There will always be somebody ready
to buck the conventional wisdom,
ready to buy when the market is low,”
wrote Boris Johnson once of his
approach to forming opinion in his old
job as a newspaper columnist. In
cricket’s case recently, Johnson sold
when the market was high, dashing in a
few words two months of work and the
optimism that the recreational game
was ready to return in early July.
Sonia Purnell’s biography of
Johnson, Just Boris: A Tale of Blond
Ambition, marked him out as a
precociously intelligent schoolboy
whose verbal dexterity could
camouflage a lack of grasp of detail.
That characterisation was brought to
mind in the House of Commons last
Tuesday, when the cricket ball was
described by him as a “vector” for
coronavirus — “potentially so, at any
rate” — which came as news to those in
the ECB, the department for digital,
culture, media and sport (DCMS) and
the scientific community.
Johnson’s remarks begged some
questions. Either he didn’t expect the
long half-volley from one of his own
MPs and extemporised or there is little
communication between No 10 and his
other key departments of state, in this
instance DCMS, which had been in
regular communication with the ECB,
or he knows something nobody else
does.
Whatever the reason, the conse-
quence was that recreational club
cricketers, itching to get going in one
of the warmest summers in recent
memory, were left frustrated.
Johnson’s use of the word “potent-
ially” is key here, though, because there
is no definitive science (yet) to prove
that the leather ball is not a transmitter
of the disease when passed from player
to player.
It is a combination of the strong bal-
ance of probabilities, combined with
the work already done to mitigate risk,
and the latitude granted to other sports
and other recreational areas of life from
July 4 that has so irritated the game at
large, and confused those at the ECB.
The game’s governing body has
taken criticism in some quarters for its
softly, softly approach to negotiating a
return for recreational cricket, but
quiet diligence should not be mistaken
for inactivity. The ECB has been more
proactive than most, at the vanguard of
establishing the protocols and guide-

Stuart Broad fears that playing without
a crowd may affect his ability to get
fired up when England take on West
Indies next week and has turned to the
team psychologist for help.
Broad’s best bowling spells — his
eight for 15 against Australia at Trent
Bridge in 2015 and six for 17 in South
Africa in 2016 for example — have
come when his tail is up and his
emotions heightened by the intensity
of the crowd and match situation.
“International cricket will certainly
be a mental test to make sure each

Broad: I’m using psychologist to cope with no crowd

player is right up for the battle and I’m

aware of that,” Broad said. “I’ve already

spoken to our sports psychologist about

creating a bit of a mindset to make sure

I can get my emotions up to where they

need to be to be at my best.

“If you put me in an Ashes game or a

pre-season friendly, I know which one

I’ll perform better in. So I’ve got to make

sure my emotions are where they need

to be for an international Test match.

And that’s something I started working

on in early June.

“It’s almost like creating a bubble

around yourself and finding what little

things give you that competitive edge.

For me as a bowler, it will be going

through a similar routine leading into a

spell to make sure physically I am up for

the battle and mentally switched on.

“It might involve doing even more

research into the batsmen’s strengths

and weaknesses so I am very focused

on getting in a competitive battle with

the batsman instead of sometimes rely-

ing on the crowd to get your emotions

going to be able to bowl at your best.

“It’s a worry for me because I know

that I perform at my best when the

game is at its most exciting. I also know

that there are certain scenarios that

bring the worst out of me as a cricketer

and that is when I feel the game is float-

ing along and there is nothing on it.

“I do know that I thrive off the energy

of something happening in the game or

a bit of excitement going on, or with a

big battle going on.”

Broad’s father Chris will act as match

referee for this summer’s Tests after the

ICC removed the obligation to have

neutral officials for international

matches, although any disciplinary

matters will be dealt with via videolink

to the ICC headquarters in Dubai.

“Maybe I have to pick more of a battle

with the opposition and bring my dad

into things a bit more,” Broad joked.

Elizabeth Ammon

Holder wants

to see longer

bans for racism

Elizabeth Ammon

Jason Holder, the West Indies captain,

believes players found guilty of racism

should face the same penalties as

match-fixers and dopers.

Under ICC regulations, players can

face a life ban for on-pitch racial abuse

but, in reality, the sanctions are far

more lenient than that. The former

Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed was

suspended for four matches for a racist

remark made to Andile Phehlukwayo,

the South Africa all-rounder, in 2019

but Holder believes the punishments

need to be tougher.

“I don’t think the penalty for doping

or corruption should be any different

for racism,” Holder told BBC Sport. “If

we’ve got issues within our sport, we

must deal with them equally.”

The ICC’s anti-racism policy states

that for a first offence the penalty is

usually between four and eight suspen-

sion points — two suspension points

equates to a ban for one Test or two

one-day internationals or two T20

international matches — so the most a

player is banned for is four Tests or

eight limited-overs matches. Players

found to have been involved in corrup-

tion or doping are usually banned for

between a year and life.

“In addition to having anti-doping

briefings and anti-corruption briefings,

maybe we should have an anti-racism

feature before we start a series,” Holder

said. The three-Test series between En-

gland and West Indies starts on July 8.

Plans for recreational team sports to

return are expected to receive govern-

ment approval this week, which could

give the green light for club cricket to

resume on July 11.

Sport England submitted a frame-

work on Friday on behalf of all major

team sports detailing plans for main-

taining social distancing and reducing

the risk of coronavirus transmission.

The sports hope this will be signed off

by Public Health England, meaning

recreational cricket could start as soon

as next week, while there are hopes that

football and rugby union seasons can

start as usual in September, with

restrictions on training eased from next

month.

It would also mean that team sports

can be played in schools from the start

of the autumn term, subject to social

distancing and hygiene measures.

The framework was developed by

medical chiefs from team sports includ-

ing cricket, football, rugby union,

hockey, basketball, netball and rugby

league, along with input from the de-

partment for culture, media and sport.

There has been growing confusion

among sports leaders that the govern-

ment has announced that pubs,

theatres and cinemas will reopen on

July 4 but has not laid out a roadmap for

the return of team sports, especially

those played outdoors where transmis-

sion risk is greatly reduced.

At the moment, training can only

take place in groups of six people with

no contact. The framework sets out

how sports will minimise transmission

risk in training and in matches. Each

individual sport would then publish its

own action plan on the return.

Johnson can’t prove ball spreads the

disease so expect clubs back in July

Mike Ather ton

Chief Cricket

Correspondent

Cricket is an outdoor sport with social distancing in-built and easily maintained, as the above club match makes clear

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND

A number of factors encourage that

thinking. The riskiest environments

are indoor and ventilated, places with

immobile surfaces made of plastic, glass

or steel. Cricket, obviously, is an out-

door sport, with social distancing in-

built and easily maintained. The above

photograph taken by Marc Aspland of a

match at his local cricket club in

Harpenden is a perfect illustration —

all 11 fielders are in shot, but none with-

in two metres of the other.

Measures to mitigate the small risk of

transmission from the ball — hand

sanitisers, wipes, regular stoppages in

play to clean the ball every five overs,

short-term playing conditions to pre-

vent the use of saliva — are all easily

introduced, so that the game can be

adapted without changing its funda-

mental nature. There is no reason why

club cricket should not return when

pubs and restaurants open again.

My own local league, the Hertford-

shire league, has 98 clubs, all of whom

are ready to go, made up of 265 teams in

27 divisions. The league had envisaged

a July 11 start, a date chosen to allow for

half the season to be played, finishing as

per usual in the second week of

September, with clubs in various divi-

sions playing each other once over nine

matches and promotion and relegation

abandoned for the year. Pushing those

dates back is not disastrous but some

clubs, such as Hoddesdon, lose their

ground to football once the cricket

season is done, and players themselves

have their own winter commitments.

There is no reason still why mid-July

should not be a goer.

The get-out clause that the prime

minister allowed himself on Tuesday

when he put the skids under the return

of recreational cricket was obvious

enough and should not require the kind

of U-turn forced by Marcus Rashford

over free school meals this month. In

his response to the question of cricket’s

return, Johnson had added: “At the

moment, we are still working on ways

to make cricket more Covid-secure.”

Expect in the near future a statement

outlining that work complete so that

recreational cricket, to the joy of club

players everywhere, can return immi-

nently. By early July, international

cricket will return, followed closely by

club cricket and then by county cricket

at the beginning of August.

“There can be no summer in this land

without cricket,” wrote Neville Cardus,

the doyen of cricket writers. Soon

enough it will feel like summer again.

lines for the safe return of team sports

and from the outset has made the case

that the game, while not absent of risk,

is as risk-free as is possible to be. Cricket

is, to all intents and purposes, a safe

game.

There is no documentation, over the

many years and in the many countries

that the game has been played, of the

ball transmitting disease of any kind.

Before March 23, when lockdown

was imposed here, professional cricket-

ers continued to play and practise

indoors with the virus in circulation. A

number of cases of cricketers world-

wide with Covid-19 were recorded but

there was no evidence of onward

transmission from within their training

or playing environments.

Not long into lockdown, the ECB

convened a meeting of eminent scien-

tists — virologists, disease modellers,

respiratory and infectious disease

experts — who sat on a call with ex-

cricketers to watch clips of the game in

action. The consensus was that, with

off-field restrictions in place in terms of

travel, hotels and changing rooms, the

actual on-field play, with mitigations in

place, is low risk. It cannot be com-

pletely eradicated, but it remains low

risk nonetheless.

Recreational

team sports to

get green light

Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter