Ashes: ECB to decide on trip to Australia

THE England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will decide this week whether the proposed arrangements in Australia are sufficient for The Ashes to go ahead, it said yesterday.

England captain Joe Root and other players have expressed doubts about the tour due to “bubble fatigue” and concerns their families will not be able to travel with them due to Australia’s strict Covid-19 protocols.

Australia has caps on international arrivals and there is a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine, even for the fully vaccinated. The ECB said it has been in talks with its players and management, while the board also remains in constant contact with Cricket Australia (CA).

“With health and wellbeing at the forefront, our focus is to ensure the tour can go ahead with conditions for players and management to perform at their best,” the ECB said in a statement.

“Later this week the ECB Board will meet to decide whether the conditions in place are sufficient for the Tour to go ahead and enable the selection of a squad befitting a series of this significance.”

CA has been negotiating with authorities and England’s board over travel conditions and whether players’ families can visit during the Christmas and New Year period.

The five-Test Ashes series is due to begin in Brisbane on December 8.

Meanwhile, England are favourites to win the Twenty20 World Cup despite the absence of pace bowler Jofra Archer and all-rounder Ben Stokes, wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler said.

Stokes was not included in England’s 15-man preliminary squad as he extends his break from cricket to focus on his mental health, while Archer ruled himself out after he suffered a recurrence of a stress fracture in his right elbow.

Coach Chris Silverwood named batter Liam Livingstone and fast bowler Tymal Mills as the replacements in the England squad for the World Cup, which will be held in the UAE and Oman from October 17.

“We are certainly one of the favourites, we are a brilliant team,” Buttler said on Saturday. “I know we’re going to be missing Ben and Jofra, two superstars, but you still look down that list and there’s some real match-winners in our side.

“(Liam), with the way his game was in those T20 series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan and The Hundred, he will go into the World Cup with fantastic confidence. And seeing (Tymal) ... coming back is a fantastic story for him.

“He has that left-arm angle, that extreme pace and he’s got a pretty good slower ball as well so he is a great guy to have in your squad who can pose a lot of problems.”