With the cricket coming to a standstill in the wake of the growing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic all over the world, Cricket Scotland is willing to host New Zealand and Australia behind closed doors if they get the go-ahead form both boards and authorities.
Almost all the cricketing events have been either postponed or canceled due to the ongoing global crisis, although, Scotland’s scheduled matches against New Zealand Women and Australia have not officially been postponed yet, but the matches are unlikely to go ahead as planned.
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New Zealand is scheduled to play a T20I against Scotland on June 10 and then an ODI on June 12, while Australia will play only T20I against Scotland on June 29.
Gus Mackay, Cricket Scotland’s CEO stated: “We are planning our way through and waiting to see what happens with advice. That’s all we can do at this stage. New Zealand aren’t going to Holland, and we’re just waiting to be guided by what their board says before we make any final decision,”
He added, “We have a temporary set-up at The Grange. If we got the go-ahead to play internationals behind closed doors, it’s something we’d consider and something we would be able to do. We do make money staging internationals, but if we had to play an international game behind closed doors it would definitely be feasible - the cost of temporary stands would be taken out of the equation.”
Noteworthy, New Zealand’s first leg of a European tour – an ODI series in the Netherlands has already been postponed last week while the domestic cricket season in Scotland also suspended indefinitely due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which has also cast doubts on Euro T20 Slam’s inaugural season this summer.
Australia was due to play T20I in Scotland immediately before their six-match limited-overs series in England, but the match is likely to be pushed towards September given the current situation.
(With PTI Inputs)
