England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive, Tom Harrison, has confirmed there will be no strict bio-bubble reimposed on players for the forthcoming England-India Test series, starting August 4.
ECB is mindful of the threat amid the COVID-19 pandemic and will be maintaining the safety protocols, but there won’t be a stringent bubble in place for the two teams’ cricketers.
Despite the recent surge of positive cases inside both England and Indian teams’ camps, the authorities had to self-isolate those identified as closed contacts.
The entire England first-choice ODI squad had to enter a phase of isolation just two days ahead of the Pakistan series after it emerged that there were seven positive cases, including that of the support staff, within their contingent.
On Thursday, it came to light that two members of the travelling Indian party have also given positive tests. Multiple positive cases have been observed among the domestic players as well, something that has affected at least two County Championship games.
Cricket hasn’t proven immune from the surroundings in the UK, where the country is experiencing a rapid rise in confirmed positive cases after relaxing the restrictions and allowing crowd gatherings for sport.
But Harrison stressed the idea behind not putting in place too restrictive an environment for the India Test series is to avoid the bubble fatigue and look after the players’ mental wellbeing by giving them certain exemptions.
“We’re in a different scenario to 12 months ago or even six months ago really with respect to how we cope with Covid. We’re really trying to learn how we live with it and create safe environments for people as opposed to bio-secure environments. There’s a huge difference between the two.”
“Players are just fed up with bio-security and bubbles and that language we have become so used to using. It’s had such a detrimental impact on mental health for players, time away from families. We are just not able to operate that kind of environment going forward.”
Harrison was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz
England players have enjoyed greater freedom than the last summer, where they played the entire home season at two grounds with on-site hotel facilities in Manchester and Southampton.
