Straight talk won Root over to Ashes plan Australian cricketers chief
Direct dialogue with Englandâs bubble-weary players about Ashes protocols was vital to reaching a point where captain Joe Root was able to commit himself and his best team to travelling to Australia, Australian playersâ chief Todd Greenberg believes.
While there was little genuine doubt about the tour going ahead - as evidenced by the lack of contingency plans for England not turning up in Australia - Cricket Australia will be relieved that the visitors can now be expected to turn up with as strong a side as possible.
England captain Joe Root with the Ashes and Australian skipper Tim Paine.Credit:Getty Images
Rootâs mind was made up after the second briefing with CA chief executive Nick Hockley on Tuesday night, which was arranged by CA to ensure any queries from the initial information session on Monday morning (AEDT) could be clarified.
âFor the England players, they needed some level of surety from us that whatâs happened in the previous three months is probably not indicative of what might happen in the next three,â Greenberg told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
âWeâve talked to them about that, weâve talked to them about the vaccination rates, about the planning with governments.
âThe long and the short of it, for me, is the England players have handled themselves really well, theyâve asked the right questions, theyâve been really professional in the way theyâve dealt with that and all credit to them. Theyâre going to get a good result here because the conditions theyâll tour in will be fantastic, and weâll have a great Ashes summer.â
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald revealed on Tuesday that the partners and families of England players arriving later in the series for the Boxing Day and New Yearâs Tests would be allowed to quarantine in a Yarra Valley resort booked exclusively for their use, complete with the freedom to leave their rooms.
This measure, in addition to the resort facilities offered to the two groups of players, staff and families arriving into the Gold Coast in November either side of the Twenty20 World Cup, was critical to reassuring Root and his players that they would not be facing two weeks confined to a hotel room on arrival.
Failure of an England team to make the tour would have blown something like a $200 million hole in CAâs finances, already stretched by the past two years of COVID-19 and additional biosecurity costs.
As chief executive of the Australian Cricketers Association, Greenberg has worked closely alongside Hockley throughout, while continually updating Australiaâs players on likely protocols. He said it was equally important that administrators kept their word about the protocols players and staff will face.
âThatâs on us, all of us, the leaders in Australian cricket, to keep our relationships with government to make sure the protocols weâve agreed on are consistent,â he said. âBut the reason why weâve all got much more confidence than maybe we had this time last year is the level of vaccination rates across the country.
âThat gives you a huge amount of confidence that the plans weâve got now will be executed and we will be able to come through on the promises weâve made.â
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chair Ian Watmore and directors, having received the go-ahead from their players, are expected to formally confirm later this week that England will make the trip. That, in turn, will allow the England coach and sole selector Chris Silverwood to choose his touring squad.
Australiaâs white ball captain, Aaron Finch, struck a note of empathy with Englandâs players after also travelling frequently over the past year. His words made for something of a contrast with those of the Test captain Tim Paine last week, given Paine has not ventured overseas since the COVID pandemic began.
âTheyâve played so much cricket over the last 18 months to two years so I can understand their want and their need to have partners and families and as much comfort around as they can,â Finch said.
âWhat weâre going to find on the back of this, in my opinion, is thereâs going to be a mental strain on a lot of people.
âNot just players but administrators, coaching staff, people who have done so much work, [and] spend so much time in isolation and bubbles, it does make it really challenging. So, yeah, I can really sympathise with them, and Iâm glad that everyoneâs come to a resolution.â
With Telegraph, London
Daniel Brettig is The Age's chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via Twitter.
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