Bubble guns facing testing time apart
ALYSSA Healy says she is “too scared” to look at a summer schedule which remains in a state of flux knowing it could mean she doesn’t see her husband, Australian fast bowler Mitch Starc, until next year.
Healy will move in to the WBBL “village” in Sydney on Thursday to play a packed five week schedule of games for the Sydney Sixers which begins on Sunday and will finish when the Australian men’s team is in the middle of a white-ball series against India.
That means Starc will be in another biosecurity bubble, which could also be in Sydney with Cricket Australia yet to secure clearance to play the games in Queensland as they hoped.
The Test series follows, meaning another bubble which would extend until the middle of January, and Australia’s best players could even be separated from their families at Christmas.
In a bid to ensure mental wellbeing is looked after, players and staff will be allowed a “support person”, be it a partner family member, to stay in the WBBL bubble under strict guidelines.
But Starc is about to head to Adelaide to join NSW’s Sheffield Shield team which means Healy might not get to benefit from that measure.
“I’m too scared to look at the schedule. I don’t know even know what he has on,” Healy said on Tuesday.
“For me I’m going to get stuck in to the WBBL and if I get the chance to see him after that, I’ll jump at it. At this stage I am really focused on the next five weeks.
“That’s the nature of 2020 and what it’s thrown at us and I know Cricket Australia and the ACA have done a lot of work in making sure that player welfare is at the forefront. If players need their partners around or if players need to take time out of their hubs, this goes for the male and female teams, they’ll grant them that.”
Healy’s Sixers teammate Ellyse Perry is expected to play in Sunday’s opening clash with the Thunder, having overcome the hamstring issue which has sidelined her since the T20 World Cup in March.
Inside the WBBL “village” players will be able to mingle and areas have been set aside to ensure there is some escape from a gruelling schedule which includes 13 games in 28 days, with many on back-toback days.
“It’s going to be a tough five or six weeks mentally, especially for the Sydney sides, we are at home but not at home ... watching Sydney go about their normal lives,” Healy said. “It could be challenging but at the same time we get an opportunity to play a full season.
“I am pretty sure after being on a few Zoom calls they have literally thought of everything and we are going to be extremely well looked after for the five weeks we are in there.
“It’s the nature of 2020 and how we are going to play our cricket for the foreseeable future.”