England players would be happy if quarantined together for a month to play matches: Chris Woakes

The outbreak of Coronavirus has put the world at a halt and the pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe since the start of its spread. The pandemic has infected over 26 lakh individuals around the world and more than 1.8 lakh people have died after being infected by the novel coronavirus.

The spread of the virus has compelled everyone to abide by the lockdown and stay indoors as a precaution against the life-threatening virus. In such a critical situation, the sporting scenario has also taken a back seat as major tournaments and matches have been postponed to tackle the outbreak of COVID-19.

All sportspersons including cricketers are spending their quarantine period in isolation and it looks like fans will have to wait a while to see their cricketing heroes on the field.

Several boards including ECB, CA and BCCI are trying their best to resume the cricketing activities as soon as possible. Meanwhile, England international Chris Woakes has stated that English players would not mind being quarantined together for a month if that’s what resumption of international cricket requires.

‘I think guys would be open for that’: Chris Woakes

“If players have to be put in quarantine for a period of time, I think players would be happy to do so,” Woakes was quoted as saying by Telegraph.co.uk.

“…if it was at a venue where we stayed on site, players would be happy to do so. But it depends how long for.

“If they said it was going to be for three months, I think players might not be too keen. But if it was a three-to-four week window, I think guys would be open to do that without too many issues,” he added.

The global health crisis has also led to the postponement of much-awaited IPL 2020 and many subsequent series have also been delayed. Along with affecting the health of individuals, the pandemic has also taken a toll on the economy.

Major cricket boards including ECB have been facing a financial crisis and it is anticipated that ECB could be losing over 300 million pounds if no cricket is played through the English summer. Earlier, there were reports that ECB had talked about a 20 per cent pay cut for centrally contracted players in order to tackle the financial crisis.

England are due to host West Indies in a three-match Test series in June and play two limited-over series against Australia in July.