|| Desk Report ||

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced that the domestic cricket would not take place before August 1 due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

The administrator, earlier, pushed the season’s possible start from May 28 to July 1, but due to the government guidance and health experts’ advice that the date has been rescheduled once again.

The ECB statement said that the intention of hosting domestic level cricket before the end of the summer is still on.

“The specifics of the season remain subject to ongoing advice from UK Government and health experts, but the ambition remains to host domestic men’s and women’s cricket across England and Wales later this summer,” said ECB chief executive Tom Harrison.

The Professional Game Group (PGG) are going to present options and plans to the ECB in June, to outline a number of possibilities for both red- and white-ball cricket in all first-class grounds. They are also working on live-streaming the non-televised matches for members and supporters.

“Naturally we want to see cricket being played at every level,” Harrison said.

“We remain hopeful of seeing both domestic and recreational cricket this season and planning with the PGG has allowed us to map a number of potential scenarios for domestic play. Whilst traditional formats of our competitions are the preference, we are not against exploring the unorthodox to ensure that we can return our players to the field,” Harrison was quoted in the statement.

“That can only happen though when it is safe, and we have said throughout this crisis that the safety and well-being of everyone involved in the game is our key priority,” he added.

“We’ve learned a lot and continue to learn about the safety protocols that would need to be in place to stage international cricket behind closed doors in this environment and those protocols will also need to apply to the domestic game,” he further said.