Jimmy Neesham of Essex Eagles looks on during the Vitality T20 Blast match between Essex Eagles and Middlesex. Photo / Getty Images.
Jimmy Neesham of Essex Eagles looks on during the Vitality T20 Blast match between Essex Eagles and Middlesex. Photo / Getty Images.
OPINION:
Last week the English cricket team encountered a situation nobody could ever have imagined.
Just a few days out from their international series against Pakistan a couple of positive Covid-19 results within the team rendered the entire playing squad (and coaching staff) unavailable, due to contact tracing regulations.
Cuea late-night emergency phone call to an injured Ben Stokes and an instant selection meeting to choose the fresh-faced fifteen he wanted to go into battle with in his first foray into One Day International captaincy.
It was a bullet dodged for the ECB as their backup players managed to do the job and defeat Pakistan 3-0 in the series. The result further demonstrated their growing depth in white-ball cricket, something that has only been on further display in the new Hundred competition recently underway.
However, the bullets will not stop coming in England as restrictions are lifted and the country is almost certain to experience a huge wave in Covid-19 cases over the coming weeks, as the frustrated public return to social gatherings en masse.
Nightclubs and bars around my location in Essex opened at the stroke of midnight on 'Freedom Day' as enthusiastic teens and 20-somethings clamoured for their first taste of life as normal in what must feel like an eternity.
All this will surely require a rethink of Covid protocols around professional cricket as well.
For years there have been illnesses occurring on international tours, the most prevalent of course being the notorious stomach ailments many western teams experience during tours of the sub continent. Sufferers of 'Delhi belly' are isolated from the rest of the team to contain the problem until they feel well enough to return to training. The suggestion of selecting an entirely new squad based off one or two players falling ill would have been considered ludicrous.
Neither the ongoing Hundred competition or the England-India test series will be conducted within a bio-bubble due to the mental toll on the players and staff, making it a near certainty that we haven't seen the last high-profile player test positive for the summer. The question is, what will be the fallout when it happens?
Jimmy Neesham of Essex Eagles looks on during the Vitality T20 Blast match between Essex Eagles and Middlesex. Photo / Getty Images.
With a huge percentage of professional sportsmen now vaccinated, along with the inherent advantage of already being young and fit, surely it is time for the regulations to move with the times and allow a more common sense approach to Covid moving forward.
How can you possibly justify isolating an entire team because of one Covid positive when they're due to play in front of crowds of 30,000 with no regulations imposed on them whatsoever?
After all, as logistically challenging as picking an entirely new ODI team on the eve of a series is, it pales in comparison to a positive result mid-test in the England-India series, or, even worse, during the Ashes downunder later this year. With the international schedule as jam-packed as it is, there would simply be no time for a reschedule and the financial ramifications would be huge. Surely it's time common sense prevailed.
Jimmy Neesham is a Black Caps veteran of 12 tests, 66 ODIs, and 29 international T20s - and one of world cricket's leading white-ball all-rounders.
