ECB bio-secure bubble difficult to repeat

CRICKET

THE ECB has admitted the ‘bio-secure bubble’ which saved its summer may be impossible to recreate next year due to financial implications and mental health concerns over those involved.

A full men’s international programme was achieved this summer thanks to Lancashire’s Emirates Old Trafford and Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl creating safe arenas for players, coaches and staff.

That helped avert the worst-case scenario of a £380m loss to the game - or ‘financial oblivion’ as ECB chief executive Tom Harrison put it - but a £100m hit was still sustained. The governing body has revealed it spent more than £1m on Covid-19 testing alone.

Chief medical officer Dr Nick Peirce, who has been at the heart of cricket’s response, said: “We started off with a highscale testing programme and we’ve done over 10,000 tests.

“That’s not something we intended to keep going: we intended to relax that and eventually evaporate that but weren’t able to.

“It doesn’t look like we are going to be out of ‘virus in the community’ any time soon. But we want to get to a point where, ideally, we have no testing and if we do have testing, it’s more realistic in its cost.”

Harrison, who underlined an intention not to seek bailout money from the government, reinforced the idea that the losses could not continue to be absorbed at current levels.

“For the ECB, being able to deliver our broadcast commitments has, frankly, saved us from financial oblivion. It’s as stark as that,” he said.

“(But) we can’t just keep losing hundreds of millions without an impact. We don’t have a bottomless pit of resources to tap into.”