The ICC has advised its member nations to exercise caution while resuming cricket activities, fearing a spurt in local transmission with many countries still struggling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
As member nations ease restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic, International Cricket Council on Friday issued comprehensive guidelines aimed toward getting the game up and running around the world while at an equivalent time maintaining the very best safety protocols.
‘Safety first’ is one among the first considerations of the ICC’s back-to-cricket guidelines and involving the governments in the least stages may be necessary.
“The resumption of cricket activities should begin as long as there’s no perceived or known risk that doing so might end in a rise within the local transmission rate,” the ICC said in its guidelines.
While England remains one among the foremost affected countries, major cricket-playing nations like India and Pakistan has seen a spike within the number of corona virus positive cases in recent weeks.
The world administration of the game added: “Every effort should be made to make sure that risks related to the cricket environment — field of play, training venue, changing rooms, equipment, management of the ball are mitigated before any training session or match.”
Cricket, like other global sports, came to a screeching halt due to the pandemic, which first originated within the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province.
Big-ticket events including the glitzy Indian Premier League and bilateral series were indefinitely postponed because the novel corona virus got right down to spreading its ugly tentacles across the planet.
And albeit cricket may be a non-contact sport, the ICC is treading a cautious path considering the danger the unprecedented health crisis involves.
Under the subhead government advice, the apex body guidelines stated, “ICC Members (and their own cricket communities) should be guided by the recommendation of their respective governments in reference to when sporting activity is resumed.
“Where sporting activities has been expressly forbidden by the governments, no cricket activity should commence until approval to try to so has been obtained from the government”
Government advice should even be sought in reference to “travel restrictions (domestic and international) and quarantine requirements.”
The ICC has also involved the necessity to teach players and every one other stakeholder on the updated safety protocols in what’s getting to be a vastly different world.
