The West Indies cricket team arrived in Manchester on Tuesday ahead of their much-anticipated three-Test series against England scheduled to be played next month.
The series will mark the resumption of international cricket which has been on a standstill since March following the outbreak of novel coronavirus across the world.
“Welcome to England, Cricket West Indies. We are delighted to have you here and can’t wait for our Test series to get started,” England Cricket said in a tweet on their official handle.
The team, led by Jason Holder, had departed on Monday evening after having arrived in Antigua from the two charter planes that collected the players and staff from their home countries throughout the day, according to CWI.
Now, the entire West Indies touring party will be tested again for COVID-19 before taking part in the series which will be played in a “bio-secure” environment.
The bio-secure protocols will restrict movement in and out of the venues, so a group of reserve players have travelled with the West Indies team to train and help prepare the Test squad and ensure replacements are available in case of any injury.
“This is a huge step forward in cricket and in sports in general as we travel over to England for this series. A lot has gone into the preparations for what will be a new phase in the game,” said Holder ahead of the departure.
The first Test is slated to be played at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton (July 8-12) with the second and third matches at Old Trafford in Manchester from July 16-20 and then July 24-28.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought the entire world to a standstill and the sporting arena is no exception. Most of the high profile tournaments including the Tokyo Olympics 2020 stand postponed.
Even the biggest cricketing spectacle on the planet, the Indian Premier League (IPL), stands suspended indefinitely owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Recently, Bundesliga became the first high-profile sporting event to resume after a 65 day period with almost no sporting activity.
A few cricketing boards around the world have only recently granted permission to their players to resume training.
The move to restart sporting leagues and tournaments come after governments are beginning to realise that the coronavirus is here to stay for quite some time and sports among other businesses will need to find a way to co-exist with it.
The virus has already infected more than 7 million people around the world while claiming over 4 lakh lives. There is still no sure shot treatment of the disease and social-distancing, self-isolation and maintenance of basic hand hygiene remain the only potent weapons of protecting oneself from contracting the infection.
(With inputs from IANS)