If the Olympic Games can be postponed by a year, anything can. Many Australian cricket fans are struggling to come to terms with the possibility that the sacred Ashes series against England starting in December might be delayed by a year, and though it is still more than four months away, it is already looking distinctly likely.
Nobody can be sure what shape the world will be in by December but it is highly unlikely to have changed significantly and the Australian governments (federal and state) are equally unlikely to have altered the shape of their Covid-19 quarantine protocols to suit the requirements of the England squad.
Several of the would-be tourists’ most high-profile players have strongly indicated their unwillingness to tour unless their wives and children are able to join them and are not subjected to two weeks of hotel isolation.
Many Australians reacted in a very Australian way by telling the Poms to “toughen up” and get on with it, apparently oblivious to the fact that many of their best, big-name players declined to tour the West Indies and Bangladesh recently. David Warner, Steve Smith and Pat Cummins were among those preferring to spend time with their loved ones.
But Cricket Australia (CA) took the possibility of a watered-down or even postponed tour seriously when their counterparts at the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) announced they were discussing the issue with their senior players, including captain and father-of-two Joe Root. Having averted financial disaster last summer with the enormous assistance of an uncomplaining Indian team, CA officials realised it wasn’t going to be as straightforward a year later.
Almost 12 months on, players around the world have been transferred from bubble to bubble while playing in a shifting environment that has moved from shock to grind. Few people outside the players and other squad members knew just how extreme the living conditions were when England became the first country to host international matches during the pandemic, and it is no wonder that ways have been found to “loosen” the restrictions. Players said a year ago that things could not continue as they were indefinitely and now the time has come to say “enough” as a group rather than as individuals.
CA stands to lose about $200m in television rights alone if the Ashes tour is postponed, income that would leave the organisation technically bankrupt should it not be paid. But Australia’s vaccination rate is one of the slowest in the developed world and the country’s politicians, of whom there are more per capita than in any country in the world, are notoriously inflexible.
Australians point to 9,000 or so citizens and residents of the country who have not been able to return for more than a year because border control permits only 3,000 new faces to enter the country every month. Why should they make an exception for the wives and children of sportsmen, they ask.
The view of England’s cricketers is that they don’t have to — that is Australia’s choice; as it is theirs not to tour without their families. It is understood that CA has urged the ECB to send a squad of players to contest the Ashes, even if it is without some of their biggest names, but that too could result in a huge reduction in TV revenue.
Australia’s T20I tour of Bangladesh, which finished on Monday, was the first time in over 20 years the national team was not televised in the country. “TV stations are not charities,” writer and broadcaster Robert Craddock wrote. “They make business decisions, not emotional ones, and when Australia sent a weakened team to Bangladesh they decided not to bid for the rights because the games were played in the middle of the night and they knew audience ratings would not justify the outlay.”
Of course, there is no chance that the Ashes would not be televised but there is every chance that the broadcasters will not pay the full contracted fee if England send an “A” team.
A final word about the Indian Test squad that has been in England for more than seven weeks, including their preparation for the World Test Championship final against New Zealand at the end of June. Most of them will fly straight to the United Arab Emirates after the fifth Test to conclude the Indian Premier League before returning home for two Tests against New Zealand. Barely a week later they arrive in SA for another three Test matches and return home for immediate visits by the West Indies and Sri Lanka.
They will have been playing international cricket virtually non-stop for 15 months by the time they get their first meaningful break at the end of March 2022. There is much talk, and action, around the need to preserve players’ mental health, but it would appear India, like SA, has yet to develop an environment in which the players themselves can talk about the subject freely.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.