Reportedly Cricket Australia will begin the team’s pre-season at the end of this month under a set of new training protocols. The protocols have been devised for the safety of all taking part in the same amid the ongoing pandemic.
CA planning for pre-season
A report published in ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’, CA is planning to resume the training under the watchful eyes of its chief medical officer Dr John Orchard and head of sports science and sports medicine Alex Kountouris. Both of them are working with other cricket playing nations as well and are trying to find ways to resume the game as part of committees of the Australian government and the ICC. The immediate intention of the CA is to finalize protocols for players’ pre-season and these include barring the use of saliva or sweat on the ball during training.
Alex Kountouris explained how it could be done and why it would not be a big problem to deal with. He probed about the possible changes as well like the elimination of spontaneous ways of cheering each other- high-fiving or a team huddle. He admitted that nothing would change overnight but people would gradually get used to everything.
What the expert says
The expert said, “There’s physical distancing in the nets – there’s two or three bowlers in each net. One bowls at a time, the batter is 22 yards away so it’s not a big problem. We don’t see it as too big a problem to manage, but these are the things we’re spelling out. This is what you should do: keep your distance, how you should handle the ball, these are things easy to manage.”
Kountouris added that social distancing would be mandatory in the post-pandemic world and accordingly teams would find ways. “You might not see high-fiving after a wicket or people ruffling someone else’s hair. It will be a spaced huddle. It will be the new norm. That’s one of those things, the physical distancing for the time being, that will definitely be out until a vaccine or some sort of solution like that (comes up).”
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