Two Week Quarantine Restrictions Before CPL

This might deter England-based players taking part, such as Hales, Gurney etc?



T&T to host CPL 2020, but strict quarantine measures to apply.

Nagraj Gollapudi.

Cricinfo.

Saturday, 11 July 2020.

PTG 3193-15806.

Matches in this year's Caribbean Premier League’s (CPL) season will all be played in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) from August 18 to September 10, after the organisers got the final nod from the government there. A total of 33 games including two semi-finals and a final will be played behind closed doors across two stadiums. 

All participants - squads and team management of the six franchises, the organisers and the rest of the crews - will need to self-isolate for two weeks before they board their flights to the country, and again for two weeks after arrival in Port of Spain.   All the overseas participants will be tested for Covid-19 before departure and then upon arrival followed by two more tests - seven days and fourteen days after their arrival.

All six teams will stay in the same hotel in Trinidad and "everyone will be subject to strict quarantine protocols for the first two weeks they are in the country". Even within that bio-secure bubble, each team will be broken up into "households" with social distancing in place. There will be smaller clusters within each household where these measures can be relaxed. In case anyone from one of the clusters displays signs of Covid-19 at any time during the tournament, all members of that cluster will have to self-isolate for fourteen days from that happening. No other guests will be allowed to stay at the hotel hosting the teams.

T&T Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Shamfa Cudjoe said in a news conference: "We will continue to monitor the situation concerning Covid-19 and to be on top of it, as it is a rolling situation and requires different rules and regulations as time goes on.  Once we bring off this tournament successfully and I am sure we will, then it will be a lesson for us in hosting other games”.

The CPL is set to be the first time people from outside of T&T are allowed into the country since the closure of its borders in late March. The Caribbean has been less affected during the Covid-19 pandemic compared to other countries, with T&T recording only 133 positive tests and eight deaths up until last Thursday, according to data released by its health ministry. As a precaution, the T&T government has closed borders even to other countries in the Caribbean and its own citizens who are overseas.

Praise for EWCB’s biosecure 'blueprint’ as more details emerge.
Ali Martin.

The Guardian.

‘Tuesday, 7 July 2020.

PTG 3187-15762.

Phil Simmons, the West Indies head coach, believes the England and Wales Cricket Board (EWCB) have provided a “huge blueprint” for the rest of the world as Test cricket prepares to resume in Southampton on Wednesday following a four-month hiatus (PTG 3186-15759, 7 July 2020). An ambitious, expensive plan that involves both the England and West Indies teams living and playing at grounds, while being subject to a twice-weekly testing regime and a swathe of social-distancing measures, international sport is back.  

Simmons said: “We’re about to show that other places can start putting things together. The [EWCB] have to be commended for all the work they have done to get the series on the road and let’s see what other countries take from it. People want to see sports because it lifts people, so hopefully this is the start”.

In further details of the ‘biosecure' arrangements that emerged on Monday, broadcasters will not be allowed to interview players at the side of the pitch, rather they players will provide match analysis and interviews to Sky-TV commentators via a video-linked Big Brother-style “diary room”.  Players can enter the room during play to discuss the game with the Sky pundits via videolink. There will also be a facility for them to recreate key moments in the game using an artificial strip within this studio.  

After discussions between England and the West Indies, the EWCB has confirmed that it will play music over the in-ground public address system in the build-up to each day’s play. Music is also expected to be played during lunch and tea breaks.  However, there will be no artificial crowd noise within the ground and no music or chants during play, despite the teams agreeing to it in principle (PTG 3185-15758, 6 July 2020).

There will, however, be an announcer to signal bowling changes, team line-ups and the result of the toss, as there will not be the usual interviews by the television commentators.  The grounds will also contain a big screen on which players will be able to see the scorecard, watch replays and keep track of third-umpire deliberations during DRS reviews.

Viewers at home will hear some background crowd noise, an unobtrusive, low-level “Lord’s hum” that has been taken from footage of previous Test matches. Unlike football matches, viewers will not hear roars at key moments, such as boundaries or wickets.  Listeners to BBC Radio commentary are also likely to hear this hum, but it is understood that the BBC will offer the option of listening without any crowd noise on its website.

The EWCB are increasingly hopeful that the postponed limited-overs series against Australia will go ahead in September.  On Monday they confirmed the dates for a three-match One Day International (ODI) series against Ireland and three Tests and three Twenty20 Internationals against Pakistan. It is hoped that a series against the Australians will follow.  The EWCB is also hopeful of a biosecure tri-series for England’s women’s team against South Africa and India in September.

Complex arrangements aimed at keeping Test series moving.
Nick Hoult.
London Daily Telegraph.
Monday, 6 July 2020.
PTG 3186-15759.

It is hard enough for a cricketer to accept they have been left out of the final XI and will instead spend the match making drinks, but in the times of Covid-19 being 12th man will come with an added insult to the ego.  That’s because some England players will be ball boys this week during the opening Test match of the England-West Indies at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. 

Steve Elworthy, the events director who has overseen meticulous planning for a biosecure series, said that:  “If the ball goes into the stands for six then squad players wearing gloves will throw it back. Nobody else is allowed to touch it.  The Test match is going to feel very different for them but they have been living this for a while already".

Television viewers will notice a difference straightaway on Wednesday morning. Normally the toss is conducted with an ever expanding group of people milling about: broadcasters, cameramen, players warming up and event staff. Not this time. It will just be the two captains and match referee Chris Broad. And of course no handshakes.

Umpires Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough will carry their own bails and stumps will be wiped down with sanitizer during cleaning breaks. Groundstaff have been told they cannot go within 20 metres of players on the field. The same for camera-operators who follow a dismissed batsman off the field and put the stump cams in place. All of this is detailed in the 74-page booklet sent to the 280 people at the Ageas Bowl this week. It is a manual of dos and don’ts that Elworthy’s team have compiled to map out every eventuality.

According to Elworthy: “That is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of detail behind it all. It is incredibly complex.  We have had to unpack an entire Test match and put it back together with a Covid lens on top. It is massive. We have had to think of everything. For example, what happens when it rains and the groundsmen have to run on the field? How close can they be to the players? Who is going to pull the stumps out of the ground? Who is going to put the bails on? Who is going to wipe down the stumps and bails at the end of the day? You are rewriting everything”.

Accredited personnel will work in ‘functional areas’ and everyone will be tagged with a chip card recording their movements so if they test positive for coronavirus or fall ill during the game it will be possible for the medical staff to track who they have been in contact with on the site.  “We have probably got between 50-70 hand sanitisers on each site with an automatic motorised sensor so you don’t have to press a button and risk transmission off a surface. Doors are all left open. We even had to check the level and depth and detail of the air conditioning. Everything is set to make sure it is not circulated from other rooms”, said Elworthy.

“We had to create separate space next to the dressing rooms because the players can’t all fit in due to social distancing of two square metres. They have their own water bottles, bags of their own balls, they can’t share kit, and jumpers and caps have to stay on the side of the field. They even have an app to open their hotel room door so they don’t have to touch the handle. When you go round the site you will see red dots everywhere which signal areas for the staff that need to be deep cleaned". 

“When the players go for lunch the food is dished up by staff behind screens. The players explain what they want. You don’t hand a plate over for food to be served. The staff pick up a plate, don’t hand it back directly to the players, they put it on a table round the corner”.

Team sheets will be handed over digitally, rather than printed, and scorers will be told not to share pencils and pens. Miles and miles of tape have been laid for a one-way system around the ground and to affix signage that should prevent anyone straying into the wrong area. 

This week feels like the culmination of 12 weeks of planning for Elworthy, who organised last year’s World Cup, and Professor Nick Peirce, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (EWCB) head of medicine, but in some ways it is just the start.  They know the government and public health officials will be watching closely to ensure the rules are followed. They cannot afford any slip ups. It is why the measures will feel over the top for many but are essential to maintain the biosecure ‘island site’ that the Ageas Bowl will be called this week.

Within the ‘island site’ a ‘zoning principle’ will operate and permission is needed from the EWCB’s ‘zone manager’ to cross into another area. Zone one is the field of play, zone two is the ground and hotel, with zone three the outer perimeter.  

Luggage will be sanitized on arrival for those allowed to stay at the HIlton Hotel on the ground and the Holiday Inn, a few hundred metres from the Ageas Bowl, which has also been block booked by the EWCB.  There will be no room service, rooms are cleaned once every six days (including for the players) and the lifts are not operational so there is lower risk of transmission from pressing buttons. 

Elworthy believes all this is vital and will enable the Test to continue even in the event of the Southampton area as a whole being locked down for a corona outbreak similar to the one that has erupted in Leicester 225 km to the north. If that happens the core staff in zones one and two will be able to run the match because they have lived within the biosecure environment and not gone home every night into the community. 

“Because we have a biosecure environment of an inner zone and outer zone it helps. We will have one of the safest environments in that particular locality. That is the way the zoning works. We would have an absolute skeleton staff who have been in the inner zone who will be able to continue the game. To provide any external services, we can find additional essential staff through some testing”.  Last week there was a scare when England's Sam Curran fell ill and was immediately retested for Corona. If a player does test positive, he will be replaced by a substitute and the game will continue, once all the other players have been swab tested again.

“We have special isolation units in the ground depending on which zones someone is in. The Covid medical officer on site will be notified and then Public Health England and Eastleigh Borough Council for the Ageas Bowl and Trafford council for Manchester.  We will then assess the case of the individual. They will automatically go into isolation or quarantine for a seven-day period but the game will go on”, said Elworthy.

The game must go on has been the mantra all summer. The EWCB has spent millions from chartering flights from the Caribbean to deep cleaning the Ageas Bowl.  This is an exercise to prevent defaulting on broadcast deals and risking bankruptcy. But some of the measures will stay with the game for the long term and the work done by the EWCB provides a blueprint others will follow when the rest of the cricketing world emerges from its off season.

England Follow Suit

England will join West Indies in having a Black Lives Matter logo on their shirts for this month's Tests.

CEO Tom Harrison said the England and Wales Cricket Board "fully support the message that Black Lives Matter" and "there can be no place for racism in society or our sport".

He added: "Our support of that message is not an endorsement, tacit or otherwise, of any political organisation, nor the backing of any group that calls for violence or condones illegal activity."

It is understood the England squad will not take a knee before the first Test at the Ageas Bowl next week.

Speaking on behalf of the England players, captain Joe Root said: "It is important to show solidarity to the black community and to raise much-needed awareness around the topics of equality and justice.

"The England players and management are unified in this approach and will use the platform of international cricket to fully support the objective of eradicating racial prejudice wherever it exists." ... BBCSport

English umpires, referee, named for home Tests.

PTG Editor.

Monday, 29 June 2020.

PTG 3176-15719.

Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough will on Wednesday week in Southampton become the first English umpires to stand together in a home Test since Merv Kitchen and Barrie Meyer were on-field in an Ashes Test way back in August 1993.  Illingworth, Kettleborough and Michael Gough, all members of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Elite Umpires Panel (EUP), will each stand in two of the three England-Windies Tests and be the third umpire in another, countryman Chris Broad will be the series’ match referee, and two Englishmen on the ICC's second-tier International Umpires Panel, Alex Wharf and David Milllns, are the four umpires.

Illingworth and Kettleborough will work in Southampton with Gough as the TV umpire and Wharf the fourth, the second Test at Old Trafford will see Illingworth and Gough on-field, Kettleborough in the TV role and Wharf again the fourth umpire, while for the third, which will also be played at Old Trafford, Gough and Kettleborough will stand together with Illingworth looking after reviews and Millns the fourth official.  The appointment of the six to manage Tests involving their countryman has come about because of the ICC’s decision to scrap its neutral match officials policy in the light of Covid-19 (PTG 3127-15470, 19 May 2020).

The England-Windies series will take Kettleborough’s tally in Tests to 66 on-field and 24 in the TV spot (66/24), Illingworth to 49/20 and Gough 16/7, while Broad’s record as a referee in Tests will advance to 103 games.  Wharf will be working as the fourth umpire in a Test for the seventh and eighth time, and Millns for the seventh.  Its been quite a break from Tests for the six match officials named, Broad’s last day in the referee's chair in a Test being on 29 November, Illingworth last took the field  in a Test on 2 December, Kettleborough on 17 January and Gough on 2 March.  Millns and Wharf’s last first class fixtures both ended on 26 September.

Gough and Wharf stood in a two-day intra-squad match played by the West Indian tourists at Old Trafford last week (PTG 3170-15684, 24 June 2020), and are expected to play a similar role in another squad game, this time over four days and with first class status, to be played at the same ground starting on Monday.  Illingworth and Kettleborough will stand in similar warm up games the England squad are to play in Southampton, the first of which is scheduled to get underway on Wednesday.  The quartet are currently in isolation with the playing squads in their respective locations.

The summer after Kitchen and Meyer stood together in that Ashes Test the ICC brought in one neutral umpire to stand with one home umpire, a process that continued until 2002 when the EUP was formed.  Peter Willey was the last English umpire to officiate in a home Test in August 2001, a game that like that of Kitchen and Meyer was the last match of an Ashes tour at The Oval.  The last Englishman to stand in a Test in England was Ian Gould at Headingley in July 2010 when Pakistan played Australia, he also being on field in the first of the two Tests of that series at Lord’s (PTG 633-3156, 14 July 2010).  Broad was the match referee for both those games.

Windies to wear BLM logo on Test shirts.

Matt Roller.

Cricinfo.

Monday, 29 June 2020.

PTG 3176-15720.

West Indian players will have a Black Lives Matter (BLM) emblem on the collars of their shirts during July's Test series against England.  Captain Jason Holder hinted in his first press conference of the tour that West Indies would look to support the movement in some way, and said in a statement on Sunday: "We believe we have a duty to show solidarity and also to help raise awareness”.  On Saturday Holder called for players found guilty of racism to face the same penalties as match-fixers and dopers (PTG 3175-15716, 28 June 2020).

The logo used will be that worn on the shirts of all 20 England Premier League football clubs since the sport's restart earlier this month, designed by Alisha Hosannah, whose partner Troy Deeney is Watford's captain. Cricket West Indies contacted Deeney for approval and the International Cricket Council (ICC) gave permission for the emblem to be worn on the teams' collars.

Holder said: "This is a pivotal moment in history for sports, for the game of cricket and for the West Indies cricket team.  We have come to England to retain the Wisden Trophy but we are very conscious of happenings around the world and the fight for justice and equality.  As a group of young men, we know of the rich and diverse history of West Indies cricket and we know we are guardians of the great game for generation to come".

"We did not take our decision lightly. We know what it is for people to make judgments because of the colour of our skin, so we know what it feels like, this goes beyond the boundary. There must be equality and there must be unity. Until we get that as people, we cannot stop.  We have to find some way to have equal rights and people must not be viewed differently because of the colour of their skin or ethnic background”.

Deeney said: "Alisha and I are immensely proud to be asked and take part in a monumental moment in world sport, this amazing decision by the West Indies cricket team to show their support for Black Lives Matter.  Watching cricket with my grandad, and seeing Brian Lara transcend from being a cricketer to a worldwide superstar, shaped my childhood, so it's great to be able to help West Indies cricket show their support in such a meaningful way”.  The shirts are expected to be worn for the first time in this week's first-class, four-day warm-up match at Old Trafford, which starts on Monday.

The ICC had previously indicated that they would operate a "common-sense approach to the implementation of regulations" regarding demonstrations of solidarity with the movement, which would be assessed on a "case-by-case basis".

England are also expected to mark their support for the movement during the series following discussions within the squad, and may also wear blue armbands in recognition of the contribution of National Health Service staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. The England and Wales Cricket Board announced last week that players would wear the names of cricket-supporting key workers on their training shirts ahead of the first Test.

West Indies' shirts will also be the first to feature a chest sponsor, like those seen in football since the 1970s. The ICC's chief executives' committee ratified a change earlier this month to allow a relaxation of rules on apparel logos for the next 12 months, seemingly to help them maintain relations with sponsors during a difficult financial period (PTG 3154-15606, 10 June 2020).  Logos on the fronts of players' shirts will not be permitted to exceed 32 square inches in size, as per the regulations for One Day International and Twenty20 International kits. England are also expected to release a shirt with a chest sponsor in the next few days.