Risk is minimal in grass-roots matches, say medical experts

Leading epidemiologists have said that it is safe for grass-roots cricket to return, claiming that “the risk would be so minimal as to be not a significant concern”.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said: “The problem with cricket as everybody understands, that the ball is a natural vector of disease, potentially, at any rate,” quashing hopes that club cricket could resume from July 4.

Richard Bradbury, an epidemiologist from Federation University in Melbourne, said: “There is a risk, but if sufficient precautions are taken, that can be mitigated. If balls are sanitised between overs, and fielders have access to hand-sanitiser to be used after handling the ball, the risk would be so minimal as to be not a significant concern.”

Niki Popper, a disease modeller from Vienna University of Technology, said: “As there is no personal contact there is no evident risk to playing club cricket. What is important is that there is no near contact between players before or after the game, at tea time or in the changing rooms. A good negative example is the tennis tournaments of [Novak] Djokovic, where unnecessary contacts occurred.”

Despite cricket seeming to lend itself better to social distancing than other sports, it is behind other games in what is permitted at grassroots level.

Basketball games involving up to six players can be played, providing that distancing is maintained and there is no contact. Doubles tennis involving people from different households is also now allowed, and players can share tennis balls for a number of weeks, which would seem to be in contrast to the notion that handling the cricket ball poses a significant risk of cricketers contracting Covid-19 from other players.

Cricketers have been allowed to play in the nets since May 15, ensuring that social distancing is observed and keeping every other net empty. Players are forbidden from putting saliva on the ball, but one-on-one coaching sessions between members from different households are permitted.

It was widely hoped that such measures would pave the way for all club cricket to resume later this summer.

Bradbury said that it was not clear how long the virus could remain on a cricket ball, and that it could remain viable on any leather ball for up to a day, but that the risks could be managed if players used sanitiser after holding the ball. The ball could also be thrown between fewer players than normal, for instance the wicketkeeper, one other fielder and the bowler, to reduce risks of transmission.

Initially, playing matches in smaller groups, such as six or eighta-side, is also viewed as a way to reduce the risk of transmission between players.