Cricket Australia is eyeing to start pre-season training this month
Image : Collected
|| CF Correspondent ||
Cricket Australia is ready to begin their pre-season training later this month under a set of new training protocols devised for the safety of players amid the coronavirus pandemic.
CA is stirring out strategies for the option of training under its chief medical officer Dr.John Orchard and head of sports science and sports medicine Alex Kountouris, according to a report published in 'The Sydney Morning Herald.'
The two are working closely with other cricket playing nations and are also part of committees of the Australian government and the International Cricket Council [ICC] which are trying to find ways for the resumption of sports.
The report also said that CA's immediate priority is to made-up protocols for players' pre-season, which also include the barring of the use of saliva or sweat to shine the ball during training.
Kountouris, CA's head of sports science and sports medicine said the coronavirus might not have much impact on teams' training in a sport like cricket.
"There's physical distancing in the nets - there are two or three bowlers in each net. One bowls at a time, the batter is 22 yards away so it's not a big problem," Kountouris said.
"We don't see it as too big a problem to manage, but these are the things we're spelling out. This is what you should do: keep your distance, how you should handle the ball, these are things easy to manage," He added.
Kountouris said teams will have to find out new ways of on-field celebrations due to the social distancing will be mandatory in the post-COVID world.
"You might not see high-fiving after a wicket or people ruffling someone else's hair. It will be a spaced huddle. It will be the new norm. That's one of those things, the physical distancing for the time being, that will definitely be out until a vaccine or some sort of solution like that (comes up). I think we'll have to find a different way to celebrate, they'll have to be innovative," He added.
"There are things you won't be able to chop out overnight but people will gradually get used to doing things differently," He concluded.
