CRICKET IN THE COVID WORLD

Elgar pushes one into the covers and scampers through for a single to bring up his 13th test century. He punches the air and raises his bat to acknowledge his team mates and turns to acknowledge the crowd, but wait, there is no crowd....

From playing in front of empty stadiums to training and playing in bio-bubbles!!

What a bizarre 2020 it was and 2021 has started out the same way!!

How the life of the professional cricketer (any professional sportsman and woman for that matter) has changed in the last year. Empty stadiums and automated crowd sounds have started becoming the norm.

The phrase "lonely at the top" has never been more relevant as it is now. Playing and living in bio-bubbles can surely not be sustained for an indefinite period of time.

It has been great for the armchair enthusiasts to finally see some cricket and other sport back on TV, giving us something to pass the time with during this Covid-19 pandemic.

But what effect will this start having on the players?

Quinton de Kock has recently spoken about his excitement in touring Pakistan for the first time in years, but at the same time as expressed his concerns over life in the bio-bubble. And he should know better than most, having spent almost 2 months in his IPL bubble, then coming back home and back into bubbles for the England and Sri Lanka series' and now off to Pakistan. What makes it tougher is that each country has its own lockdown levels and quarantine laws.

We have heard from numerous players from Australia and England expressing concern about prolonged bio-bubbles and the negative psychological effect it may start to have on players. Having limited contact with family and friends and not having the necessary break away from the game for a prolonged period of time is going to take its toll, no matter how mentally tough you are.

We have also seen an unusually high amount of injuries lately (India, Sri Lanka and Australia have been hard hit). Is this due to the lack of domestic cricket being played due to Covid?, Are players not getting the necessary amount of game time under their belt leading up to an international series?

How do we fix this? One answer may be to only have short international tours for the foreseeable future until Covid - 19 starts to calm down.

Whichever way the ICC decide to go, it will not be easy and team management are going to have to come up with new and innovative ways to deal with the mental and physical well being of players. We have heard a number of stories already of players breaking quarantine and bio-bubble rules. This not only puts the team at risk but also jeopardizes the series being played.

One thing we do know, is that all players the world over are in the same boat in these uncertain times and only time will tell what effect Covid 19 will have on our beloved game!!