How cricket could make a comeback in July

WITH the recent return of Premier League and Championship football played behind closed doors, could somebody please tell me why cricket is taking so long to return?

We are in the middle of June and with the West Indies Test series due to start in July, county cricket should also be looking at starting around then too.

A schedule due to start in August depending on government restrictions has been released, consisting of a small four-day format and a T20 Blast, hopefully with restricted crowds and all the necessary distancing measures in place.

I can’t help but think though, having seen non-essential shops reopen in the past week, that you could stage county cricket with small crowds obeying distancing measures at a much earlier date.

All members could be asked to inform their county in advance if they plan to attend on the match day in question, so any spare capacity could be sold on a first come, first served basis.

You could have so many seats taped off to keep everyone from different households at the correct distance, mobile food and drink bars, stewards patrolling the loos with two-metre markings in the queues outside and as for any wet or cold weather, everybody attending need only use a bit of common sense and bring some warm and waterproof clothing if it is not feasible to open any of the indoor bar areas.

Stewarding and matchday staff at Grace Road are always very efficient in normal circumstances, so I’m sure with a bit of training they would quickly adapt to the new requirements.

Premier League football has the billions to recover from all this, but sadly, county cricket doesn’t, so something needs to be done as soon as possible in compliance with lockdown rules.

Oliver Hawke, Great Glen