Reports | Cricket Australia to launch pre-season towards May end

Cricket Australia became the first board to announce the total ban on the usage of saliva in the wake of coronavirus but planned a staged return of sports to uplift the collective morale of the nation looks like it's on the cards. With the effect of the virus seeing a gradual decline, Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the CA is planning to begin the team’s pre-season in the last week of May under a set of new training protocols devised for the safety of players. Dr John Orchard and Dr Alex Kountouris will oversee the proceedings.

“There’s physical distancing in the nets - there are two or three bowlers in each net. One bowls at a time, the batter is 22 yards away so it’s not a big problem. We don’t see it as too big a problem to manage, but these are the things we’re spelling out. This is what you should do: keep your distance, how you should handle the ball, these are things easy to manage,” Kountouris was quoted as saying by the Publication.

“You might not see high-fiving after a wicket or people ruffling someone else’s hair. It will be a spaced huddle. It will be the new norm. That’s one of those things, the physical distancing for the time being, that will definitely be out until a vaccine or some sort of solution like that comes up.”

Should training resume, Australia might become the first country to resume international cricket.