BANTON ADMITS HIS STRUGGLES WITH BUBBLES
ENGLAND can crack on with their three-match ODI series today following a full set of negative Covid results for the remaining members of the South Africa squad.
A nervy wait gave way to relief yesterday morning as the 17 players, support staff and hotel staff all recorded negative results, allowing the first match in Paarl to go ahead. England’s concerns over the South African bubble were well founded following a third ‘positive’ of the tour, but that player has been removed and placed in isolation and it appears an outbreak has been avoided.
The second ODI is tomorrow and there will be a final test for the Proteas camp on Tuesday before the third match on Wednesday, but it is hoped that all will be played without further hitches. Despite England returning more than 1,000 negative tests so far this year, the situation in South Africa is a reminder of just how fragile the bio-secure bubbles can be.
It is a tough gig for players to move from one bubble to the next, which is why England’s management are trying to find ways for players to get time away whenever possible.
Sometimes though the player must make their own call on bubble life, which is why young England batsman Tom Banton has decided to pull out of his Big Bash deal with the Brisbane Heat, which was due to begin straight after this tour.
The 22-year-old has gone from bubbles in England, then in the UAE with the Indian Premier League, and now in South Africa.
The thought of going through a 14-day hotel room quarantine before linking up with team-mates in Brisbane was a little too much to bear.
“It has been harder than I thought, spending so much time in the hubs and bubbles, and I came to the realisation that it wasn’t doing me much good,” Banton admitted.
One man who has headed Down Under is England’s world No.1 T20 batsman Dawid Malan, 33, who said: “I would also love to play at the IPL for the first time.”