Pacer Stuart Broad said he is "desperate" to see crowds back in England's cricket stadiums after an entire summer behind closed doors amid COVID-19 pandemic.
England took on West Indies, Pakistan in World Test Championship fixtures and Ireland, Australia in ICC Super League ODIs in Manchester and Southampton amid bio-secure arrangements to save ECB heavy financial losses that they were otherwise facing.
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From the players' perspective, however, the sense of abnormalcy and its causes weren't lost on them. Broad especially worked with team psychologist David Young to ensure lack of spectator presence doesn't affect him, being a player who tends to perform at his best with the crowds rallying behind him.
While Broad did go alright, taking 29 wickets in the five Tests he played, he still wants fans back cheering for England from the stands next summer or if possible, even during the Ashes tour of Australia.
"Obviously I'm desperate for crowds to be able to come back and enjoy our sport. Let's be honest, health and safety of people is much more important than that. But yeah, to be honest, I'm not even looking as far as Australia: I think England next April or May has got to be at the forefront of our minds to be able to get sports fans back into our stadiums," said the 34-year-old during a virtual media session for the 'NatWest Cricket Awards', as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
"The experts will study everything and hopefully we're in a position in our country that that could happen - I know in October, we were due to start getting some fans back into stadiums but things took a little turn for the worse."
"I think Australia have done pretty well with it, haven't they, so another year down the line we'd be hopeful that we can we can take our trusty support and the Barmy Army with us to Australia, because genuinely I do feel like it's one of our best chances of doing well there with the quality of players we're growing."
"It would be awesome to be able to take our home fans to an Ashes series because they're such special occasions," he added.
Broad also said he is carrying no concerns over travelling for England's winter series in Sri Lanka and India (which might take place in UAE) for scheduled seven Test matches after having seen the effective use of health protocols and bio-bubbles to secure fixtures despite the pandemic.
"To be honest, I wouldn't have concerns about going away to a bio-secure bubble because I've seen it work so well this summer. It's felt very secure. We've had teams fly over and come into our bubble, and it seems to have worked really well, so if the likes of the IPL continue to work I don't see a reason why we can't do these bio-secure bubbles all around the world to get cricket on the screens," said the right-arm quick, who took his 500th Test wicket in the summer.
"I personally would be happy to go to anywhere as long as it was a bio-secure, safe environment to play some cricket because it gave everyone a boost this summer. If we got the go-ahead from the ECB - which I hope we do because I'm desperate to play some cricket this winter - I'm sure the players would be fully supportive of that."
"One thing that's very clear is training will be trickier than it was in April, May and June during the lockdown period because of the weather and being able to train outside. So there'll be discussions about how we manage to peak at the right time and keep ourselves in condition," Broad added.
"I really didn't want this summer to end. From the team's point of view, we were really growing and doing really good things and from a personal point of view I was in great condition and in a great headspace, so I just wanted the summer to continue. But unfortunately, it couldn't."
