Businesses in Australia are now cautiously working on plans to restart, now that the worst of the pandemic appears to be over.
Cricket Australia (CA) is in the same boat and has been in talks with both the ICC and the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) about two very important tours: the men’s T20 World Cup and the proposed tour by India.
Nothing has been finalised for the 2020-21 Australian cricket summer so here are some thoughts about how the schedule could play out.
First and foremost, CA needs to give away any notion of travelling overseas to play until 2021. According to the ECB website, Australia is still scheduled to play a T20 and ODI series there in July. This is highly optimistic and there have been reports of moving this to September, when the impact of the virus should hopefully have eased in the UK.
This tour should be moved to next year. If played this year, it’s likely the players would have to quarantine in England for at least 14 days when they arrive and would certainly have to quarantine for two weeks when they return to Australia, all for the sake of three weeks of cricket. Bear in mind also that it won’t only be the players who will have to face restrictions: it’s all the other support staff and coaches.
The other issue CA may need to deal with is the IPL. Right now, the 2020 season has been suspended, but that’s not to say it won’t happen at all.
(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Depending on when it starts, CA should allow individual players to go to India, assuming of course they’re allowed to travel. It would be a tradeoff for the upcoming Indian tour and not all Australian Test players are contracted to IPL teams.
The T20 World Cup in Australia should be abandoned now. There are two key elements that have to be in place to make this event work: players and crowds.
The issue with the players is that most of them would have had little or no cricket for months. The players might be able to get to Australia but they would be rusty and the spectacle would be well down on the standards expected at a World Cup.
It would also be criminal for the World Cup to go ahead without crowds, yet it would be a logistical nightmare for immigration and health officials to test and monitor those overseas cricket fans who’d want to come to Australia. Throw in the difficulty with flights, and decent crowds for this tournament in October would be nigh on impossible.
All of this leaves Australia with the option of a visit by the Indians and this is a chance to go back to an old-style tour.
India should bring a squad of at least 22 players because if they have any injuries, they won’t be able to simply fly a player in from overseas and have them slot straight into the squad.
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
That number of players, after their quarantine period is over, will require plenty of match practice, so games should be held against Shield teams, perhaps the Cricket Academy XI as well as a Territories XI. There should be at least four of these before the first Test then at least one more during the Test series and all should be four-day events.
Running parallel to this part of the tour should be the Shield and domestic one-day competitions. There should be no reason (apart from a virus relapse) to stop these tournaments from taking place.
Just to spice things up a bit, an invitation should be made to the touring party so if they want to include a player in a Shield or one-day game, they could do so. It would give Indian fringe players much needed centre-wicket practice and perhaps even give guys like Virat Kohli or Jasprit Bumrah a chance to don the baggy blue of NSW or the maroon of Queensland.
All of these games should be available on the CA website so fans in both Australia and India can watch and perhaps some guest commentators from India could make an appearance.
This should be a five-Test series, starting in Brisbane in early November and culminating in the New Year Test in Sydney.
Straight after that, there should be a triangular ODI series including the Black Caps, with games played on both sides of the Tasman, similar to the old Benson and Hedges Cup days.
(Photo by Jason McCawley – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Perhaps a similar triangular T20 tournament could also be held in February, although that would mean the Indian players were away from their homes for more than four months.
The BBL would not be forgotten, but it should be played in a condensed format, starting around the last week in December and finishing in the last week in January. Both India and New Zealand could either supply players for the different franchises or even make up a team for this event, so that would ensure they had reserves available for the internationals if one of their white-ball cricketers was hurt.
The final aspect of the summer is crowds. There’s no way the top two Test-playing nations can go hard at each other in an empty stadium. Kevin Roberts has to work out a way so each Test state gives the okay for people to come to the games.
The grounds don’t need to be filled as they might have been 12 months ago, but even a half or a third of the usual number would be enough to provide some atmosphere. There are enough fanatical Indian fans already in Australia and plenty of Aussies who will make enough noise to well and truly make up for the lack of numbers.
It will be interesting to see what the final schedule looks like. In some ways, the upcoming season harks back to the 1970s, when cricket players and fans were starved of the game through the off-season, which made for lots of anticipation and the Tests all the better to watch.
There appears to be a great chance for CA to host a terrific tour. Yes, it would be nice to also host the World Cup but if that’s not possible, why not make the Indian tour a memorable one?
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
5 bob each way ehh. Possibly a mistake but who really knows. They do seem to be paying for it short term but it may yet pay off in the long run. Only time can give us the definitive answer to that one.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
They were eqivocal at the start by talking about herd immunity and then lockdown. They chose both, it seems by allowing flights from hotspots and passengers not being tested on landing, while their our residents were in lockdown.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Yes, it is hard to know what will be the situation in 4 to 6 months from now. But at this stage as a Govt policy maker, I'd have little confidence in how most other countries are managing this right now. Unfortunately most countries lost control of it before they acted. As i post-edited in my previous comment, even India went further than Australia re international border closures back in March, but too late unfortunately. We may not know for several years what the final impact will be on India with under-reporting, no-reporting, especially from village-based regions and major-city slums.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
They did Jeff, about 4 weeks into a lockdown of their own residents! Ludicrous. I agree, I've already stated in other threads that I don't believe CA should entertain sending a sanctioned team to England for at least 18 months, as they've ignored what's working in other countries. With time to review the Indian tour, the same should apply with o/s travel to here.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I think Britain introduced 14 days quarantine on arrival this week. India closed its borders to arrivals on 13 March, including to its own citizens. It also cancelled all international flights. Brazil I’m not sure about – their President is a loose cannon, so who knows what they will do. But the point is, the virus will remain rampant in those and many more communities four months from now. So the risk of importing it will remain high from o/s arrivals to Australia. Higher than it was 2 months ago IMO.
Peter Farrar
Roar Pro
Very much like how you suggest the tour could go ahead Paul. There's even a chance that those tour matches may have reasonable attendances as the Indian team is popular and people of that background may well go along. I just can't imagine a summer without test matches going along in the background and after what has been a difficult time we could all do with the distraction. I in fact lost my job and after weeks of dealing with Cenrelink and combing through SEEK.com I will welcome following the fortunes of Tim Paine and co!
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Brazil, India and Russia haven't implemented madatory isolation when entering the country. Neither has Britain, they aren't even taking temps at arrivals, that's why they haven't flattened the curve despite extended lockdown. If you're accepting flights from those countries and allowing the passengers to just walk into the community then you are importing a higher % of infected individuals. We're seeing hospital staff and quarantine workers being the risks now because we've 'coralled' the infected to certain locations. We're also talking in 4 months time for India to potentially come here. That's a long time in this changing landscape.
Paul
Roar Guru
thanks Dave. That compromise you described the BCCI is chasing, seems reasonable I'd have thought. We still get an Indian tour plus a WC, they get to have top players in their cash cow. Win/win I'd have thought, though the WC might be a money pit if overseas fans still aren't able to come over. Hopefully by Feb, international travel would have restarted.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Agreed. I think the initial hope was a vaccine by early next year, but who knows - there's never been a vaccine developed for a coronavirus. But also it seems the intention was to build up health infra capacity to deal with a rapidly expanding health crisis, which we seemed to have achieved. I think there is too much reliance on the thought that warmer months will have a suppression effect on the virus though. Numbers are exploding in Brazil and India right now in very warm to hot climates, and Russia's numbers are exploding too as they come into warmer weather. We can get the Australian domestic economy going for sure very soon, but we are going to have to contact distance from those beyond our borders, which means exceptionally tight border controls. I don't think the 14 day quarantine period is the panacea that many hope. Yesterday we had a new case in Perth with a worker from a hotel where o/s travellers have been quarantined. Who knows how many people locally that worker already had exposure to before being tested positive. Contact tracing of that worker will help manage an outbreak of course, but it's still a risky proposition. The question for Govt is, is allowing non-residents into the country even with quarantine (noting yesterday's WA example) an acceptable risk for sport competitions if the trade off is new cases/clusters and further shutdowns in parts of the domestic economy? I remain of the view, based on recent policy approach, Govt will err very much on the side of caution, even in 6 months time.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Latest news Paul is that you may be right about World Cup, with BCCI angling to have IPL overlapping with beginning of our domestic season, as well as the WC a lot. CA apparently under pressure to release our players to the IPL with quid pro quo being to have a couple of extra ODIs at the end of a four Test series, with possibility of T20 WC moved to Feb. It seems hosting WC not as lucrative as I had assumed and much less profitable than a couple of ODIs with India. Curious.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
But they shut the borders only to non-American citizens. The didn't quarantine returning American citizens. It appears they were a major vector in the spread of the virus.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I think we're one of the few countries with compulsory voting. Think of it as compulsory egalitarianism
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Hmm. I'm kinda glad they didn't team up with Bill and then Adolf a few years later though. We might all be speaking German if they did.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
A yank might tell you we have to vote because we're oppressed by big government. They might have a point but I always vote because it is, pretty much literally, the least I can do towards having my say in the running of the joint. Didn't know that voting in federal elections wasn't compulsory in England. I was surprised to read that.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
The only good thing about England is Supertramp, Kate Bush and Thandie Newton.
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
Don't get me started on English Imperialism. We are indeed luckier down here. Geography not the least reason. Aussies are far from perfect but we have got compulsory voting so the pollies know we can only tolerate so much bull. I pity the plebs of England and the USA.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
The problem was Billy the Kid riding into town. They were eating, thinking and speaking in German uptil that point. Then the French came n ruined it.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Let's not gild the Lilly here. ATM, the UK is a bit of a Covid-19 hotspot and while ever that remains our Govt. is extremely unlikely to reopen uncontrolled air travel with London. For cricket purposes they might make an exception but they will be weighing up any possible political fallout they might get for deeming a sport worthy of being an exception to the rule. Obviously, this will be less of a problem if other sports can get up and running in the meantime. If other sports can break the ground and show that it's safe the more likely it is international cricket can proceed this summer in Oz.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Gee whizz Your Holiness. I don't think I'm game to ask what you think of the Church of England then. :happy: .. Seriously though, while I'm no expert on epidemiology, I find it a bit strange that a wealthy 1st World country with a strong health system could be caught so short. I recall reading they might have been a bit slow to get the social distancing off and running but I thought they closed their borders fairly early in the piece. Not that any of that has helped the US much either. Just goes to show, we ARE a bit lucky down here. Well 50% luck and 50% skill maybe.
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
That's the English way of leadership for about the last 1000 years. Blistering outward overconfidence and stoicism will get them through anything. They believe their own mythology and are pretty good at getting their people to believe it too, often with violent relish. It's just a bit uncommon for them to be caught out at home and this isn't a problem they could solve with conventional means old Empire style.