England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Tom Harrison is “confident” that the upcoming Ashes 2021-22 series will go ahead as planned amidst the ongoing negotiations with the Australian government and Cricket Australia (CA) over the travel restrictions for the tourists’ families.
England players will be away from home for nearly four months to play in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE and Oman from 17 October to 14 November and then travel to Australia for the Ashes 2021-22 from 8 December and given the long period of time, the players want their families to join them for the Christmas and New Year.
But there is less possibility of families joining England players on the Ashes tour, thanks to Australia’s strict COVID-19 protocols on the borders and restrictive quarantines and bubble environments and some players are considering pulling out of the mega Test series.
With England players are seeking assurances that they will be able to take their families with them to Australia, Harrison said their demand is understandable and they are talking with the Australian government regarding the same while hinting the necessary exemptions would be attained for Ashes.
Harrison said at Lord's: “All the right conversations are happening at government level in Australia, and we will be using our own diplomatic channels in the UK to ensure that the view of the players and the ECB (is heard). This is not players asking for anything unreasonable, these are very reasonable requests that we are asking the Australian government to give some leniency, frankly.”
He added, “It's going to be important for us to ensure that we can give comfort to players that their families are going to be able to be in Australia and that those conditions in which they are quarantined will be reasonable, enabling the players to be at their best in that test series.
It’s a conversation that’s going to take place over the next few weeks, but I am very confident we will get to a place where we can fulfill our obligations to tour.”
Refusing speculation that the Ashes could be postponed by a year to allow England fans to attend, the ECB CEO said: “The Ashes is so important to global cricket, much like an England-India series, but even more so in certain parts of the world and for global cricket fans. We never want to compromise the integrity of the series for any reason. Cricket Australia understands this, just as well as we do. Cricket Australia is taking it very seriously and understands the issue at hand.”
Harrison signed off by saying, “The issue at the moment is the process that we need to go through to get the assurances that we need to be comfortable, that our players can get on the plane to Australia and feel confident that they can be at their best and they can perform at their best, without having to cope with the mental weight of being massively concerned about the conditions.”
(With AP Inputs)
