West Indies cricketers will be hesitant to go to England and play an entire three-match Test series due to the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding which, skipper Jason Holder says no player should be forced to travel to the UK, where an alarming number of positive cases and deaths have been reported.
The three fixtures, due to be played in June, were suspended in mutual agreement by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket West Indies (CWI).
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But the two boards have also been discussing plans to go ahead with the series in bio-secure venues, without crowd-presence at a later window this summer.
In such circumstances, however, travelling is far from a safe exercise.
“Each player has to be comfortable in making the step,” Holder was quoted as saying by BBC Sport.
"It’s been made clear if we are to hop on a plane and go over to England to play, it must be safe."
"Certainly from my perspective, I won’t be forcing anyone to go anywhere," he added.
While discussions with ECB are ongoing, the CWI has also been in regular touch with its players. "We’ve been given assurances from Cricket West Indies that we’d only go over to England if they deem it safe for us to play," said Holder, with the two boards reportedly set to arrive at a new schedule for the series at the end of this month.
"It’s no different from a frontline worker going into a hospital every day - they’re putting their lives at risk, and still going to make money. The longer we stay off the field, the longer it’ll take for us to make money."
CWI CEO Johnny Grave had earlier said he expects players to be nervous about the prospects of travelling to the UK.
“There will be no coercing players into this tour,” Grave had said.
"If you grow up in a country where the population might only be 60,000 or 70,000 people, to be thinking the UK has had over 30,000 deaths is a massive figure."
"We have to be absolutely clear that it’s safe first and foremost."
(Inputs from BBC Sport)
