New father Eoin Morgan wants to do all he can to ensure cricket is played during the English summer, but concedes the scope of the coronavirus outbreak means the sport falls within a much bigger picture.
Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, said that given the gravity of the situation and ongoing uncertainty surrounding the impact of the pandemic, he saw “every option being viable during this extraordinary time”.
“The serious nature of the situation economically and financially for the game is something that we have never come across,” Morgan said. “Certainly from a player’s point of view we want to do as much as we can to try and keep things going.
“If there’s an opportunity to play as much cricket as we can, I’d like to think every player would be behind it. I certainly am. But obviously times are still uncertain at the moment.
“Realistically we can’t think about playing, when our first game will be, or how many we will play until the situation is downgraded from a pandemic. As ridiculous as it sounds that’s how serious it is.”
The ECB has said no professional cricket will be played in England or Wales before May 28 and is working on various scenarios to squeeze the domestic season – including the new Hundred competition – and international tours by West Indies, Australia and Pakistan into a curtailed timeframe beginning in June, July or August. The County Championship was due to begin on April 12, with seven rounds of matches scheduled up to May 27.
International fixtures, the T20 Blast and the Hundred will be given priority as the most financially important competitions for first-class counties, but there is no guarantee that any cricket will be played during this northern summer. There are also doubts over whether the World T20 Championship will go ahead in Australia in October and November, the next global tournament for Morgan, who led England’s victorious 50-over World Cup campaign last year.
Morgan was also taking a broader world view given that his wife Tara gave birth to their first child, a son called Leo, three weeks ago.
“We have been preoccupied looking after the baby,” Morgan said. “We’ve been dealt a really good hand when it comes to things that are going on at the moment and have been bunkered away for a while, and haven’t been under pressure to go off and play cricket, which has been really nice.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo