Fine with two England teams playing at the same time: Eoin Morgan

England's captain Eoin Morgan (R) plays a shot watched by New Zealand's wicket-keeper Tim Seifert during the Twenty20 cricket match between New Zealand and England at McLean Park in Napier on November 8, 2019. (Photo by Marty MELVILLE / AFP)


England’s limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan said that he is fine with two teams representing the country playing at the same time in separate venues if a compressed home season is to be held.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the cricket calendar has come to a standstill. While a number of international series have already been postponed, question marks hang over upcoming cricket series including the T20 World Cup that is scheduled to be held in October and November.

England’s Test team led by Joe Root can face either West Indies or Pakistan in July while Morgan’s limited overs side play Australia in the same month.

“I see every option being viable during this extraordinary time,” Morgan told reporters in a conference call.

“Certainly I’ve never experienced anything like it and I don’t think anyone else has. I think the serious nature of the situation economically and financially for the game is something that we have never come across.”

“Certainly from a players’ point of view, we want to do as much as we can to try and keep things going,” Morgan added.

Morgan, who led England to their first ever World Cup win in 2019, however said that these are extraordinary times and the players would be ready to get behind any opportunity to play as much cricket as possible.

“I certainly am. But obviously times are still uncertain at the moment… Realistically we can’t think about playing, when our first game will be, or how many we will play until the situation is downgraded from a pandemic,” he said.