ECB meet to plot cricket’s course through calendar wreckage left by coronavirus pandemic

By the end of Thursday, advisors for the England & Wales Cricket Board will have met to talk through “four to five” different coronavirus contingency plans for the season ahead. Their workings will be relayed to county chairmen and executives who spent Wednesday making plans in line with those “four or five” options.

Friday will see further discussions with the ECB board and the hope is by then those potential scenarios will have concrete measures in place. Perhaps by the end of that meeting, but certainly by the beginning of next week, those plans can be shared with the wider game.

But the ever-changing nature of a virus that has shut down every major competition in almost every major sport, and puts us closer to the brink of lockdown, means none of the proposals will equate to answers, reassuring or otherwise. Each a hedge for situations well beyond the game’s control.

What is for certain is the crux of the ECB’s thinking right now is not simply to adjust the existing framework but rather create one out of thin air. The only ever-present among the scenarios seem to be the date of 16 July – the opening day of The Hundred. And for good reason.

As reviled as English cricket’s new competition may be, it along with the NatWest T20 Blast are the two indispensables right now. In however short a manageable window, they will be the two competitions able to pull in the most money for the 18 counties and satisfy key broadcast commitments for the 2020 summer. The global pull of the competition may be hampered by the absence of overseas stars, but the strong likelihood of being one of the few sports taking place – certainly the only cricket – would bolster viewing figures.

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The Royal London Cup 50-over competition is seen as the most expendable. The County Championship rests uneasily somewhere in the middle. International cricket – there are scheduled Tests against West Indies and Pakistan along with limited-overs matches against Pakistan, Australia and Ireland – while capable of generating the most revenue is regarded as unworkable at present considering the restrictions on movement between countries, especially to and from the United Kingdom.

But as those in charge of the game work away at the various permutations, players and fans find themselves unified in a state of uninformed limbo.

Membership cards for the 2020 season are being received. Scheduled emails and Tweets about tickets going on general sale for the Blast and Hundred are still going out. The Cricketer’s 2020 season-preview edition, featuring their famed fixtures wall-chart, went on sale this week. Those fans, many of them aligned to local clubs who were prohibited from cracking on with the recreational summer indefinitely, will carry an emotional burden at the prospect of losing both of their summer's regular wonders.

For the players, things are about as “business as usual” as possible. Across the board they are still ticking over their fitness having only stopped pre-season sessions earlier in the week. A number of England players have invested in home exercise equipment, such as Peloton Bikes. Most are doing what they can at home or outdoors.

Some counties have shut down operations at grounds entirely but kept their gym facilities open and cleaned regularly to encourage players to use them rather than public gyms, which carry greater obvious risk.

But already players are fearing the worst regarding their earnings much like the rest of the country. And just as in the real world, there have been the odd unfounded rumour among the playing staffs across the country that have created a sense of fear.

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“I’ve checked and double-checked my contract,” one county captain told The Independent when asked of a particular falsehood that counties have the power to withhold payment in the event of a drastically truncated season. At present, these whispers, including another that suggested red ball cricket would be “binned off in its entirety”, are unfounded. But as we edge closer to 12 April, the originally intended start of the county season, those rumours and that uncertainty will grow even with whatever may be thrashed out in the coming 24 hours.

The Professional Cricketers’ Association is currently in dialogue with players and has sought urgent clarification from the ECB over funding for counties and whether wages can be paid if no cricket is played, but even they are unable to offer firm assurances due to the unprecedented nature of recent events.

The plans that emerge will almost certainly seem unsatisfactory to some. Therein lies the great quandary of having to find a suitable way forward while considering 18 counties, rights holders, players, fans and the long-term effect this period will have on the game.

Whatever bailouts may be needed will be hamstrung by the diminished ECB cash reserves. Whatever ambitions with The Hundred could be tempered by potentially playing it out behind-closed-doors and, more devastatingly, not at all. Whatever fight some counties may have fought to stay afloat across the last five to ten years may prove to be in vain.

And to think of what the game gave in 2019. Alas, a year beyond English cricket’s wildest dreams has been followed by a 2020 just three months old but already of incomprehensible and potentially irreparable nightmares.