May County Start Unlikely

MCC indicates late May county start very unlikely.

PTG Editor.

Thursday, 9 April 2020.

PTG 3078-15236.

Guy Lavender, the Chief Executive and Secretary of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), has indicated that the "closure period” for cricket and all other activities at Lord’s which is currently due to end at the end of May, is “very likely” to be extended further.  The England and Wales Cricket Board (EWCB) announced nearly three weeks ago that the county cricket season, which was due to get underway on 12 April, would not start until "at least 28 May" because of the coronavirus crisis (PTG 3057-15136, 21 March 2020). 

In an “update” on the situation posted on the MCC’s web site on Wednesday, Lavender said: "we expect the return to normality to take a much longer period of time [than the end of May] and we are preparing, in collaboration with our EWCB and First-Class County colleagues, for further closure extensions and a potential slow and phased return to full operations”.   Despite that though the club "remain hopeful that matches at Lord’s will be played this year but unfortunately, for now, we cannot say when”.

Lavender’s assessment of the resumption of the game appears to put England’s Test series against the West Indies during June, which has been on shaky ground for some time, even further in doubt.  The first Test of the series is currently scheduled to start on 4 June at The Oval, a ground that is just 8 km across London from Lord’s.  The second at Edgbaston is due to get underway on the twelfth, and the third at Lord’s itself on the 25th.  One report has suggested the three-game series could be moved into July (PTG 3074-15219, 5 April 2020).

Also on Wednesday, the 'Yorkshire Post’ quoted Martyn Moxon, that county's director of cricket and saying "It would be great if we had a situation whereby we could play maybe three months of the season.  I think that would be the best that we could hope for at this stage, realistically, but it might be less than that, of course.  The season could potentially go into October, but I don’t know how the [EWCB] feel about that [PTG 3074-15218, 5 April 2020].  We all know how much time we lose to the weather in September as it is, so would that be viable?”  If the season had a mid-October finish, Moxon’s three-month scenario would see a start in mid-July, three months from now.

The coronavirus death toll in British hospitals rose by a record 938 on Wednesday, taking the total beyond 7,000 amid warnings that the lockdown could last another month.  A total of 60,733 people have tested positive across the country, including 5,492 in 24 hours.

Professor Chris Whitty, England's Chief Medical Officer, said in mid-March that he expected the UK would reach the peak of its coronavirus outbreak in about 10 to 14 weeks. That time frame would mean that the number of infections would peak sometime between late May and late June with a tapering off period after that.  The UK Department of Health provided a similar projection earlier this week.

We can play in October, say county ground-staff.
Simon Wilde.

The Times.

Sunday, 5 April 2020.

PTG 3074-15218.

Ground-staff believe that they can stage county matches in mid-October if necessary as English cricket examines ways in which it could accommodate as many international and domestic fixtures as possible when the season begins.  The season is due to finish on 25 September but this could be pushed back to allow more cricket to be played when the restrictions in place due to coronavirus are eased. 

Tom Harrison, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (EWCB) chief executive, said last week that it would prioritise internationals and the T20 ‘Blast' but a truncated county championship remains an option.  Gary Barwell, Warwickshire’s head groundsman and chair of a head groundsmen’s group which reports to EWCB, said: “I jokingly said to my director of cricket that we can play into December if it is the right thing to do".

“Ground-staff will produce pitches whenever we’re asked to. We’ve got the technology to go to the back end of October. The problem is that if we get rain, and several games are abandoned but one plays, does that make things a bit uneven? Realistically, mid-October might be the latest we could go, but if it needed a game at the end of October, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  There would, though, be a knock-on effect for the following season in terms of [ground and pitch] renovation”.

Seven rounds of Championship matches before the end of May have already been scrapped, but were a season to be started in July or August, there is a strong likelihood that the major venues — such as Barwell’s patch at Edgbaston — would be put to intensive use under a revised program.  Edgbaston was due to stage an England-West Indies Test on 12 June but that now looks likely to be rearranged for July (PTG 3074-15219 below), which will be a challenge for Barwell and his team, who rotate shifts to observe social distancing guidelines.

“It’s difficult when you’ve got a pitch ready for a particular date and somebody comes to you and says, actually, it will be two weeks later. That’s tricky. But I’d like to think that in the situation we’re in, people will allow a bit of leeway — that if it isn’t the best pitch in the world everyone would understand. If I was asked to prepare a Test pitch in two weeks I could do it. The EWCB have been very sensible in the decisions they have made up to now”.

Fortunately, several major grounds, including Edgbaston, have hybrid pitches that can be used for county white-ball matches — which the EWCB says are a priority as they are financially the most valuable — and several matches can be played on these in short order (PTG 2924-14518, 19 October 2019).

“If we have to play every day, we could”, Barwell added. “It would be tough, but we could do it. Hopefully we’d try and get in three or four games a week. We are keeping the square in a position where we are ready to go. We’re on top of the cutting, everything’s in a good place. We could potentially get ready to play tomorrow. I’d like to think we’d have two or three weeks’ notice. As soon as we get the green light, we’ll be preparing as best we can to give people a bit of entertainment at a very important time”.

Geoff Webb, of the Grounds Management Association, which represents 26,000 groundstaff across many sports, said that it was important that nobody underestimated the stress under which his members were working, particularly in cricket.

“It’s been especially difficult for cricket because they’ve had the wettest February on record, and now on the back of that a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. I feel for the morale, for their mental health and their confidence. That’s where we’ve got to be supportive and I hope that the clubs that employ them realise the pressure these guys have been under and support them. These are unprecedented times”.

It is believed that all 18 first-class counties have furloughed some of their groundstaff, but Barwell believes it has been done with the interests of the staff at heart. “It has been done in a professional and positive manner”,. he said (PTG 3072-15211, 3 April 2020).

Webb urged all sports not to cut back too heavily: “The role and skill of the ground-staff is vital in being able to get the players back on the pitch in the shortest time. If you make too deep cuts, you just don’t have the physical resource to bring [pitches] back into play once you get the green light. You may undermine the start of your season”.

BBCSport

Sussex: Rob Andrew warns counties must plan for no cricket this summer

Sussex chief executive Rob Andrew says clubs must plan for the possibility that no county cricket will be played this summer.

The 2020 season has been put on hold until at least 28 May because of the coronavirus crisis.

And Sussex have already placed most of their non-playing staff on furlough for the time being.

"We have to think about the worst case scenario," former England rugby fly-half Andrew told BBC Radio Sussex.

"We're all having to make decisions that we never dreamt we'd be making, even three or four weeks ago. We're having to make decisions that try and protect the future of the club into the next six to 12 months because we just don't know quite what the future holds."

The England and Wales Cricket Board had made three months of funding, totalling £40m, available to support the 18 first-class counties.

And the governing body is making a further £20m available for grassroots clubs.

The County Championship was due to begin on 12 April, followed by the T20 Blast on 28 May. The One-Day Cup was to follow later in the summer, along with the ECB's new The Hundred competition.

"The reality is that we have to think about - it's hard to imagine this - the possibility that there may not be any cricket this summer," Andrew added. "That's how extraordinary this circumstance is.

"We have to think about the unthinkable which is the possibility if we're not able to (play), we have to try and survive this summer without any cricket, which is the reason we exist. It's very, very challenging, undoubtedly."

England captain accepts there may be no cricket this season.
Nick Hoult.

London Daily Telegraph.

Tuesday, 31 March 2020.

PTG 3068-15194.

England Test captain Joe Root has accepted there may not be any cricket played at all this season and expects talks over pay cuts for players (PTG 3065-15178, 29 March 2020).  Root has contacted all his players to check on their wellbeing during the suspension of sport and is following government guidelines to stay at home, using an exercise bike to keep up his fitness levels. The enforced break is also a chance to take stock of the progress of the Test team after the win in South Africa. 

“[No cricket this season] has definitely crossed my mind, it is a possibility. But I think we have to try to stay optimistic, try to take things day by day, not get too ahead of ourselves, we’ve just got to be ready for whenever that opportunity to play again is”, he said.  "We’ve just got to stay fit, obviously we can’t do much in terms of actual practice, hitting balls and bowling and stuff like that. Might be that my wife has to start giving me some throwdowns in the back garden but until things become that drastic it will be simply sit tight and wait".

The England and Wales Cricket Board (EWCB) are expected to announce emergency payments to the counties this week to help with cash flow problems (PTG 3066-15184, 30 March 2020). Talks have begun between it and the UK Professional Cricketers’ Association about salary reductions with the season suspended until 28 May, although no decisions have been made.  Centrally contracted players are employees of the EWCB so in a different situation to their county colleagues. So far England cricket has not been lost to the virus (broadcast money for the Sri Lanka tour would have been paid to the host board) but is looks inevitable the West Indies series in June will, at best, be postponed (PTG 3062-15162, 27 March 2020).

Many counties have already put non-playing staff on furlough to take advantage of government money but so far players are still being paid.  “I’m sure at some point in the coming weeks there will be a discussion (around pay cuts) that’s not my area of expertise. I think we just have to concentrate on making sure we are as fit and as ready to go as we can be for whenever we get back to playing cricket”, said Root.  If the summer is wiped out he fears then future schedules will be very crowded with postponed series having to be played at some point in the future.