Posted: May 22, 2020 | Updated: 4 months ago
The International Cricket Council has issued comprehensive guidelines aimed at the resumption of cricket at all levels – community, domestic and international – around the world as respective governments have started to relax the restrictions imposed due to the spread of the corona virus pandemic.
The comprehensive document – ICC Back to Cricket Guidelines – has been developed by ICC’s Medical Advisory Committee in consultation with Member Medical Representatives, with the aim to provide guidance for the safe resumption of the sport. In order to achieve that, key observations and recommendations have been made for how teams around the world should deal with the prospects of returning to training, returning to playing and traveling for it again.
Key among the finely-detailed guidelines, is the recommendation of the appointment of a chief medical or a bio-safety officer to ensure all the respective government guidelines are followed as players return to training. The apex body has also asked for a consideration of a pre-match isolation training camp that will involve temperature checks and Covid-19 testing at least 14 days prior to travel. Additionally, there are calls for formulation of an adequate testing plan during practice and match situation.
Next up on ICC’s agenda for the respective boards is the need to provide a safe workplace for the cricketers, which entails risk assessment of training and match venues. There are also calls for maintaining 1.5m distance (or as indicated by the respective governments) between players at all times, and thorough sanitization of personal equipment. Like in the ECB’s recently-released guidelines, ICC wants players to arrive at grounds ‘ready to train’, and not use common facilities like showers and changing rooms.
With respect to match situation, the need for medical resources at every venue, the appointment of on-call doctors and sufficient medical support have to be considered. After already having banned the use of saliva to shine the ball, there is now a recommendation in place to provide players with a clear guidance into the safe management of the ball.
The players should also not be handing over caps, towels, jumpers etc to the umpires between overs, while also saying that the umpires might have to use gloves while handling the ball.
There are also very strict rules set out for travel, which will first need the adherence of the guidelines set by respective governments. Furthermore, the ICC has called for the use of chartered flights, adequate social distancing on the flight, and taking up dedicated floors for the teams in hotel accommodations.
The four stages of return to training
Players’ return to training has been bracketed into four stages, with progression from one stage to another to be based on government regulation. Stage 1 involves individual skill-based training, which England have already begun for their bowlers. Next stage should kick in with practice in small groups (of less than three players) while adhering to social distancing norms. Stage 3 can have a slightly bigger group of players and a coach (less than 10) while stage 4 will be squad-based training while maintaining safe distance from each other.
Also, the load and intensity of training for the players should be progressive across the stages in order to avoid the risk of injuries.
Guidelines for bowlers
Considering they run the highest risk of getting injured if proper care is not taken in their return from a lengthy period of inactivity, specific guidelines for bowlers have been drawn up. These include the suggestions to the cricket boards to involve a larger squad, in order to achieve the demands of the sport once it resumes.
There are also suggestions of format-specific training routine for the bowlers. As per these, boards have been suggested to allow for a minimum of 5-6 weeks of training, with the last three weeks involving bowling at match intensity in order to facilitate a bowler’s return to T20Is. For ODIs, the minimum preparation period is of 6 weeks, and a similar phase of match intensity practice [3 weeks]. For Tests, the preparation period is two to three months (8 to 12 weeks), with the last 4-5 weeks involving bowling at full tilt.
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