Months have passed since pandemic made its way into common life. All life forms have been affected by the mischiefs from the microcosm. For Cricket fans, it felt like a pause button and all the action vanished. However, people have realized that life cannot be controlled like a Netflix show and a pause button won’t work. Living with the ailment is the new normal. With masks, physical distancing being embedded into lives, Cricket seems to be a possibility in the future.
@Inphosports
Windies have landed in England and July is the month for eyes awaiting. Another update comes from Ireland. Thirty elite cricketers have resumed their training at selected venues. A statement from the Irish cricket boards said: “More than 30 of Ireland’s elite cricketers return to training this week at three dedicated hubs across Ireland, with the senior men’s and women’s squads undertaking modified training sessions in accordance with Cricket Ireland’s COVID-19 Safe Return to Training Protocols”.
The three centers namely Cricket Ireland High-performance center in Dublin, the cricket facilities at the Civil Service NI Ground in Belfast, and at Bready Cricket Club in the North West have been cleansed and disinfected. They were taken over by the Cricket board during the weekend to attain clean and safe surroundings for players and coaches. The high-performance director of Cricket Ireland said that: “The most effective and controllable solution was to create three high-performance regional hubs to host the practice and training of our men’s and women’s performance squads.”
The sessions will feature 1:1 individual work in small group numbers. The planned calendar for cricket has been disrupted immensely by the onslaught of a deadly virus. However, Holdsworth believes that with the training of this sort, the Irish men and women will be sharp and up and running for fixtures later in the year. There have been talks of Ireland facing England and the ball is in the English Cricket board’s court.
Holdsworth further added that “In terms of getting ready for those matches should the approval come, with a six to eight week period regarded as essential from the standing start of lockdown to being ready for international cricket — particularly for our bowlers. It was crucial that our players did not lose any more time with the England squad already back to training. In addition, there is also still the outside prospect of the men’s T20 World Cup in late 2020 — so it may still be a big year for the men’s squad”.
With teams looking ahead for the resumption of the game, stringent norms for safety shall come handy. This is not to mention that the definition of normal is changed.
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