England indulge in crisis talks with CA over fears of new COVID-19 variant affecting Ashes

The emergence of the new COVID-19 variant in South Africa has created a lot of panic across the world and cricket boards are in talks to plan their further series. In the same line of sequence, ECB’s managing director, Ashley Giles stated that England is having crisis conversations with Cricket Australia around the fear of the new COVID-19 variant. Giles accepted that the variant could affect the upcoming Ashes along with players and their families moving to Australia.

It was earlier known that English players were reluctant to play Ashes given the hard COVID-19 norms in Australia.  They had concerns about their families undergoing hard quarantine of 14-days before entering the actual venue. And as of now, Australian states have started new restrictions as two passengers arriving from Qatar in Sydney have tested positive for the Omicron variant.

“It’s very early days but we are starting that conversation. There are going to be changes to border controls in terms of our families being allowed to travel and we clearly hope that’s not going to affect us. But we are in the hands of national and local governments,” said Giles from England’s hotel in Brisbane as quoted by Daily Mail.

We always knew things could change, says Ashley Giles

It has been stated that it is still very early to talk around Ashes but reports have been suggesting that the chances of the Perth Test going forward might be 50/50. However, Giles assured that ECB would do everything to make sure that players’ families are accommodated well and that they are happy.

“We always knew things could change. I guess we hoped things would change positively as we went through the series but, as we’ve been aware over the last two years with variants, things can also change negatively. Can we prepare for everything? It’s not really possible actually because of the big moving parts even around quarantine times and rules around different states.

“We will do everything we can to make sure the families are accommodated and of course that the players are happy,” Giles concluded.