India’s cricketers will not be rushed back into training even after the country gave the green light on Sunday for sports facilities to open, the national cricket board has said.
India has extended a nationwide lockdown to May 31 as it tries to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, and while stadiums and sports complexes are reopening to allow athletes to train there will be no events staged that would draw spectators.
With travel and other restrictions in place, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said it would wait before scheduling any training camp for its contracted players.
“... the safety and well-being of its athletes and support staff is paramount and (it) will not rush into any decision that can hamper or jeopardize India’s efforts in containing the spread of the virus,” BCCI treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal said in a statement late on Sunday.
India are scheduled to tour Sri Lanka in June for a limited-overs series but that trip is likely to be postponed due to the pandemic.
India’s cricketers have been cooling their heels at home during the lockdown, which has seen the Indian Premier League postponed indefinitely.
Dhumal told Reuters last week the BCCI was looking for a new window for the Twenty20 league later in the year to avoid a potential $530 million loss.
Elsewhere, Cricket West Indies Chief Executive Johnny Grave has said the players will not be "coerced" into going to England for a three-test series as the UK struggles to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
The West Indies had originally been scheduled to play the three tests in June but the series has been pushed back due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
More than 30,000 people have died in the United Kingdom and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) last month decided to extend the suspension of the professional game until July 1. "There will be no coercing players into this tour," Grave told the BBC.
"If you grow up in a country where the population might only be 60,000 or 70,000 people, to be thinking the UK has had over 30,000 deaths is a massive figure."
The ECB is hopeful of hosting the test later this year and Grave said that while there was reason to be optimistic safety concerns had to come first.
"We have to be absolutely clear it's safe first and foremost," he added. "The ECB has got a long way to go to get government approval to be absolutely certain that bio-secure cricket will work.
"The players would be very much in a bubble. We said to the ECB we'd want four weeks of preparation before the first test. We're probably looking at three back-to-back test matches.
