England’s bio-secure bubble a blueprint for other teams to emulate, feels Eoin Morgan

In March, when cricket was suspended in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis, there was no light at the end of the tunnel and almost everyone was mentally preparing themselves for at least a year without cricket. But to the credit of Steve Elworthy and team, the ECB managed to bring in an innovative bio-secure bubble concept to restart cricket in the UK, with the help of onsite hotels, and completed a full summer of cricket that saw Ireland, Windies, Pakistan and Australia touring with the women’s team scheduled to play against Windies women in a bilateral series later this month. 

Morgan believes that it was a stunning performance from the management and feels they have been able to create a structure that is numero uno in its own count. Morgan feels other boards might not be able to create the same kind of bio-bubble but can follow the concept to restart cricket in their own way.

"From where we were five months ago to have had a full set of international fixtures and to have cricket back on the TV is huge for the game. I think we've pioneered and mapped out exactly how to get cricket back on. Given we've had no positive cases within the bubble I think it's a very good example and one every team around the world will look at,” Morgan was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo.

"Whether they can model it exactly like that might be a bit more challenging but I think the ECB has done an outstanding job."

With no effective vaccines in sight in the near future, the bubble concept might become the new normal to host matches which means another extended period of time away from home. The World Cup-winning skipper feels that the board might have to look at guys spending more time outside of it or families being allowed to come in.

"If there was another summer of a bio-secure bubble we would probably have to look at guys spending more time outside of it or families being allowed to come in," he added.