BUT GILES IS CONFIDENT TEST SERIES WILL GO ON

ASHLEY GILES has assured West Indies cricketers the ECB “will not compromise” the safety of players in order to get their tour on in July.

Windies chief executive Jonny Grave admitted his players remained nervous about the prospect of being the first postlockdown tourists.

But Giles promised them that the ECB remained confident they can provide a safe environment for the tour to go ahead behind closed doors.

“We are doing all we can to answer their questions,” said England’s Director of Cricket.

“We can’t mitigate all risk but we will mitigate as much as we can to get guys comfortable.”

England are pinning their hopes on staging international cricket this summer as the sport faces up to huge losses.

It is hoped that Australia and Pakistan will follow the West Indies later in the summer in order to ease the financial hit for all of the boards involved.

Grave insisted four weeks of preparation would be needed before the Tests, which would mean decisions need to be taken in the next week. But he maintained no one would be forced to tour.

Asked whether he could see the Tests taking place, he was positive. “We are right to be optimistic,” he said.

Giles, right, echoed those comments and added his hope that the Government may well have released the handbrake on lockdown still further by the timeWest Indies arrive.

“It has to be safe and it has to be right. We would never compromise the safety of our players and our people. But right now I am confident,” he said. “Given the trajectory we are on, who knows what the UK will look like in two months or three months time? Or the world?

“We hope we don’t take another dip, which would put all of us back, but if we continue on this trajectory, hopefully we will have the right conditions to play some

Test cricket.”

England’s centrally contracted bowlers will return to one-onone training sessions with county coaches from Monday. Batsmen will follow two weeks later. In total, 30 red-ball players have been asked to return in order to provide the squad for the Test matches.

They will be “temperature tested” on arrival at training, ECB medical staff (or their county physio) with PPE equipment will be on hand, dressing rooms will be closed and social distancing will be observed.

Giles believes players will be safer in training than they would be at their local supermarket.

He also confirmed the ECB will not impose a seven-week quarantine on players for the Test series. “People will want to see families and kids. So we have to look at ways we can make that happen,”

he said.

We will not compromise on safety of our stars