CRICKET FACING ITS BIGGEST TEST
FORMER Test quick Steve Harmison has questioned whether withdrawals from this summer’s Ashes could be the start of the end of Test cricket as England’s pleas for quarantine mercy hang in the balance.
English Cricket Board chief executive Tom Harrison said at Lord’s every diplomatic measure possible was being used to ensure the five-Test series in Australia would go ahead despite calls to have it postponed.
But, significantly, although Harrison claimed “all the right conversations’’ were happening at government level in Australia, there was as yet no official confirmation the families of English players would be allowed in the country.
It is an imperative for many players given the exhausting schedule England is chained to and he acknowledged as much when he said England would stand by its “peoplefirst’’ policy.
England fears its squad for the proposed five Test series starting in December will be weakened by a string of withdrawals and towering quick Harmison said if that was the case the wider game could be severely damaged.
“Test cricket is hanging by a thread with so many white ball competitions up and about,’’ he said on Talksport’s Following On podcast.
“If you send 16 single guys over to Australia and it is not the spectacle you expect from the Ashes, is that the beginning of the end for Test match cricket?’’
England was initially concerned its families might not be admitted to Australia but former captain Michael Vaughan said the fears had widened to players having major reservations about their wives and children having to spend two weeks in quarantine once they landed.
Fast bowling star Jofra Archer is already out of the tour and Harmison believes allrounder Ben Stokes, taking an indefinite break because of the twin stresses of bubble life and a nagging finger injury, is unlikely to tour.
“I think there will be withdrawals and I think they will be big names. Jos Buttler has a baby on the way. I cannot see Ben Stokes being involved,” he said.
“With Ben, his family are the shield around him at the moment to get through the next phase of his life. To have that taken away for three months to tour Australia, I cannot see that happening.
“I think a lot of the biggest hitters in England cricket will come out of the squad.’’
English players have felt Australia’s quarantine laws are over the top and this sentiment would only have been enhanced by the South Australian government’s decision to place returning Olympians in “double’’ quarantine for a month then ban the Australian cricket side from training in its quarantine period in Adelaide.