Safety first for Farbrace

WARWICKSHIRE’S players reported back to a ‘highly professional and totally safe environment’ on their return to training this week, said sport director Paul Farbrace (pictured).

The full Bears squad returned yesterday, joining England squad members Chris Woakes, Dom Sibley, Olly Stone, Sam Hain and Henry Brookes who have been training at Edgbaston over the past two weeks.

Strict safety and social-distancing guidelines must still be observed, but the environment has been skilfully tailored to adapt to those conditions by the expertise of head of stadium operations Claire Daniel and head physio Gerhard Mostert.

“The players have come back into a highly professional and totally safe environment,” said Farbrace. “We’ve had our England players back for two weeks with all the necessary protocols in place, so we know they work perfectly. “The safety of everybody – players, coaches, staff – is paramount so a lot of thought has gone into how we’ve done this, as is the case at every county, of course.

“All the players record their temperature on an app at the start and end of the day and, if there is any abnormality, or they don’t do it, they don’t come in.

“There’s certain differences to usual, like one-skin-one-ball with every player bowling with just one ball, but it’s very close to normal practice. It’s just fantastic to have the guys back in and practicing with a view to starting the season on August 1.”