ECB hits back at South Africa's accusation of breaching the bio bubble by England players

In the latest and shocking turn of events, the England tour of South Africa got cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the squad. The England and Wales Cricket Board has finally hit back on the allegations pointed at them by South Africa’s Western Province cricket officials. The SA officials have blamed English players for breaching the bio-bubble secure environment for their practice sessions. The spike in COVID-19 cases came only due to these negligent actions.

Western Province stated South Africa, ECB, and the local police that they won’t be responsible for the health of English players, who opted to practice in an outdoor net facility. The outbound net facility was near a construction site. In return, an ECB spokesperson added that the session went outdoor because the rest of the available pitches were not up to the standard at Newlands, a cricket venue in Cape Town.

“On arrival at Newlands on 3 December, we advised the venue that the three nets provided on the main pitch were not of a standard for conducive practice, as per the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the respective boards. Batsmen were unable to face seam bowlers on the nets on the main pitch as the surfaces were rendered and unacceptable,” ECB spokesperson as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

We requested with CSA for security cordon: England spokesperson

Further, the ECB official added that they requested CSA to provide them with the security cordon so the practice can be done in the outbound net facility. The same way happened during the T20I series on November-28.

“We requested with CSA that we would like to use the practice nets and that we would create a security cordon to ensure the players and coaches could enter the facility safely, as done previously on 28- November. This was confirmed by England’s Security Team, the Team Operations Manager, and the Team Doctor. We were satisfied with this outcome, and we were able to practice in the net facility safely,” added the English spokesperson.

Firstly, one COVID-19 case in the squad cancelled the first ODI between two nations, but ultimately, the entire event was called off.