SL vs ENG | ECB’s decision to postpone tour ‘tough but necessary’, asserts Stuart Broad

The England cricket team were scheduled to tour Sri Lanka in March 2020 to play two Test matches, starting March 19, as a part of the ICC World Test Championship. The English team played tour matches in Sri Lanka starting March 7. However, on 13 March, it was decided that the England Cricket Board pulling out had led to the two-match Test series getting. Eventually, both cricket boards agreed on planning to reschedule the fixtures.

Seasoned pacer Stuart Broad, who was with the team in Sri Lanka, has upheld the board’s "very tough but necessary decision" and "putting the players and the fans first". Earlier, England captain Joe Root had also spoken on the same lines. 

"Over the past couple of days, it has almost been as if the world has started to realise how serious this really is, and started shutting down things. The NBA was called off, the Melbourne Grand Prix was called off, golf's Players Championship was called off. Suddenly, it was like 'wow.' These major worldwide events were being postponed and there was a feeling within our group that we ought to think about where we stood. Thankfully it did not come to that. The call came from the top, whether from Tom Harrison, or Ashley Giles, or others in the hierarchy at the ECB,” wrote Broad in a column for the Mail on Sunday.

"They made a very tough but necessary decision and credit to them for putting the players and the fans first. It can't have been easy, with all the financial aspects of a tour like this, and ultimately we want to be playing cricket for England so we were sad to be leaving. Despite the disappointment, though, the right decision has been made and we all look forward to coming back and completing this series at some stage.”

The widespread outbreak had already taken a toll on the sporting world and the team was touring Sri Lanka. During those times, the English were full of what-ifs revealed Stuart Broad.

"The mood changed within the past three or four days, though, with the spread seemingly gathering pace and sporting events increasingly coming under threat. Naturally, during this time, a lot of questions started being asked. There were a lot of 'what ifs' from the players' point of view,” Broad added.

"What would happen if one of us got it? The whole squad would have to go into 14-day quarantine. What would happen if a family member fell ill at home, and we had been in quarantine overseas? That would have meant no way of getting back to them. What would happen if one of our supporters got it and it then started spreading through the rest of the fans? There were an estimated 3,000 set to travel.”