Four months after more than 86,000 fans thronged the Melbourne Cricket Ground to make us all feel cozy inside about cricket in 2020, nearl...
Four months after more than 86,000 fans thronged the Melbourne Cricket Ground to make us all feel cozy inside about cricket in 2020, nearly four months after the last international fixture was played, the sport is all set for a comeback in front of empty stands in England.
On Wednesday, international cricket resumes after months of coronavirus-enforced lockdown with the first Test between England and the West Indies at Southampton starting on Wednesday.
The attention in the immediate future will be on the surreal atmosphere will be played. Like being in a sci-fi movie is how the bio-secure nature of this series is being described as. A number of anti-virus measures mean this match will look like few others in 143 years of Test-match history.
For a start, both sides will be staying at on-site hotels at Southampton’s Ageas Bowl and Old Trafford in Manchester – the venue for the second and third Tests – in a series originally scheduled for elsewhere in England in June. England have already settled in at the Ageas Bowl, where they played a three-day intra-squad match this week as the West Indies continued their preparations at Old Trafford.
“There is hand sanitiser at every turn, and on the floor there are arrows, lines and footprints to show the way to...
