The proposed England tour of Sri Lanka in January is reportedly in doubt over the strict quarantine rules in the island.
The England Cricket Board (ECB) has stated that they will not allow England players and staff to tour Sri Lanka if the Sri Lankan government doesn’t not relax their 14-day quarantine rule, raising concerns on its effect on players’ mental health.
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Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, said to The Guardian: “We are working to ensure the business of international cricket keeps going. [But] the Bangladesh tour to Sri Lanka is an understandable situation for the Bangladeshi team; two weeks of quarantine is not an easy thing to agree to for players and I don’t think we would agree to that either.”
“We will not sign off on plans we’re not comfortable with, in terms of our No 1 priority: the health and wellbeing of players and staff on these tours.” he further added.
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Under the guidelines of the Covid-19 task force of Sri Lanka, the tourists will be required to undergo 2 weeks of quarantine in a hotel on arrival in the country and will not be able to train at all during this period.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board recently called off their tour to the island nation because the Sri Lankan government would not agree to an exception to its rules, by allowing players to train within a bio secure bubble during their period of quarantine. However, England successfully hosted West Indies, Pakistan, Ireland and Australia during their summer with a 2-week quarantine rule where the tourists were allowed to train.
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This Test series will be a crucial one for both teams as it is also part of the ICC Test Championship 2019/2021. The England team toured Sri Lanka this year (2020) for the series but had to return to England mid tour with the threat of the pandemic escalating and countries closing up their borders.
Sri Lanka national players have been starved of international cricket since March 2020 while most of the other cricketers from full member countries have played international cricket or tournaments like the IPL. It will be devastating to see this series also called off again as no other international tournament (inbound or outbound) is set to be played in the foreseeable future.
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