Crowd’s throw gets hit for a six
IT used to be six and out in the backyard but now it’s six and get your hand sanitiser out.
Cricket’s complex biosecurity protocols will be launched at the first women’s international of the summer this Saturday and the ball now requires as much cleansing as the bowler’s mental state every time Alyssa Healy pummels one out of the park.
The time-honoured sight of a fan lobbing the ball back to a fielder is now only the beginning of the process for restarting play, as the fielder must march the ball straight to the umpire for a deep clean.
Umpire and fielder must also disinfect their hands with sanitiser before the next ball can be bowled.
After 33 sixes were hit in Tuesday night’s IPL match featuring Steve Smith and Shane Watson, the umpires may need plenty of refill packs handy when the Big Bash League gets under way.
“That one little thing that you take for granted, where someone throws the ball in and you get going again — a lot of time and consideration has had to go into that,” Cricket Australia medical expert Alex Kountouris said.
“We’ve just tried to keep things as simple as possible and as safe as possible.”
Australia’s men’s team is currently in hotel quarantine in Adelaide and has police es
corts for players driving 450m to training at the nearby oval.
Coach Justin Langer must then do another two weeks of quarantine in his home in Perth when he returns to WA.
Some members of Australia’s women’s team based in NSW and Victoria had to move out of their residences for two weeks before entering quarantine in Queensland, because their living arrangements were considered high risk.
These are the sacrifices being made by cricketers this summer to get the show back on the road, as Australia and New Zealand’s women prepare to get international cricket up and running again.
Cricket Australia has taken biosecurity advice from the NRL, AFL and Netball Austraalia, but has settled on a model el most similar to the NRL.
“The AFL has a model where they’re doing lots of COVID testing. Testing twice a week,” Kountouris said.
“Whereas the NRL you test at the start but then you get them in and once everyone is safe you know the environment is low risk.”