British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that recreational cricket can resume in England, which has some of the most idyllic grounds in the world, from Saturday, July 11, has been greeted with delight by lovers of the sport.
“Dust off those pads, start turning your arm over and blow the cobwebs out of your spikes,” was the typical reaction from a cricket website, TwentyTwo Yards.
“Finally ... Some sense ... let’s get the game started next week ... Great News,” enthused Michael Vaughan, former England captain-turned-commentator.
“We are delighted that the UK government have given their permission for recreational cricket to return from next weekend,” said the England and Wales Cricket Board. “We will shortly be publishing our approved guidelines to help clubs and players prepare for cricket’s return.”
“The overriding feeling I have is one of utter relief,” said Simon Prodger, the managing director of the National Cricket Conference, the voice of the club game. “This is a huge boost for club cricket — it’s come later then it should to be honest but it will at least allow clubs to play cricket.”
Johnson had initially appeared reluctant to pronounce, “Play”, after arguing the cricket ball was “a natural vector of disease” and also because of possible problems with social distancing in the pavilions at “the teas...the changing rooms and so on”.
But after a campaign by a number of newspapers, the ECB and Test cricketers, past and present, Johnson signalled a change of heart by declaring, “I’ve sought scientific advice and the medical opinion of the third umpire has been invoked”.
Standing alongside Johnson at a news conference at 10, Downing Street, on Friday, the government’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, set out some of the restrictions: “It is perfectly possible to have cricket where people do keep their distance and, provided that people don’t do things that are clearly not sensible — ranging from hugging the bowler if they’ve just bowled someone for a duck through to spitting on the ball.”
Of course, not being able to polish one side of a sanitised ball by first putting spit on it will make reverse swing harder to achieve this summer.
England’s men will play the West Indies in a three-Test series in a bio-secure environment beginning at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton, from July 8.
