Victory for the Telegraph as Government gives grass-roots cricket clearance to return from July 11

Joe Root, Heather Knight, Ben Stokes and Andrew Strauss had supported the Telegraph's Bring Back Club Cricket campaign

Royal Ascot Cricket Club second eleven take on the Newbury first team
Club cricket has not been allowed so far this summer Credit: CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER

Telegraph Sport's campaign to bring back club cricket scored a resounding victory on Friday when Boris Johnson gave the go-ahead for 11-a-side matches to return next weekend.

The Prime Minister made his about-turn after earlier in the day provoking a furious backlash from the England & Wales Cricket Board and the club game that an imminent return was not possible.

But he later backtracked at his daily press conference saying, “I’ve sought scientific advice and the medical opinion of the third umpire has been invoked”, before going on to say cricket can return from July 11.

"What I can say is that we do want to work as fast as possible to get cricket back and we will be publishing guidelines in the next few days so that cricket can resume in time for next weekend,” the Prime Minister said.

Johnson has been under pressure since he gave the all clear for bingo halls, bowling clubs and pubs to reopen but kept cricket in lockdown, saying the ball was a "natural vector for the disease."

The Telegraph Sport campaign received high-powered backing from England captains Joe Root and Heather Knight, Ashes winning captains Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss, as well as Ben Stokes, who joined the chorus of voices earlier this week calling for the club game to return.

The campaign was launched on June 26 and led by Telegraph columnist Vaughan, who has been a vocal critic of the government’s decision. He said: “Why we are not playing now? I have no idea. Let’s get it back and save half our season.”

England captains Root and Knight joined the campaign a day later. “When I look out my window at home and see my local club, Sheffield Collegiate, I can see it is tough for club cricketers who cannot play as they do normally. Hopefully common sense will prevail and we will get recreational cricket back on” said Root.

Double Ashes-winning captain Strauss told Telegraph Sport that the science showed cricket is a low-risk sport. “When you add hand-sanitizing the ball it is very hard to construct an argument to say that playing cricket is a heightened risk as opposed to anything else we will be doing in life,” he said. 

Stokes said it was “strange to comprehend” that pubs will reopen while cricket remains banned. 

A series of leading epidemiologists also told this newspaper that providing other measures are taken, such as regular hand-washing and disinfecting the ball, the risks of Covid-19 being transmitted through a cricket ball are minimal. Club cricket has been played in Germany for the last four weeks.

The ECB anticipate that 11-a-side cricket will be able to return immediately, rather than a period of adaptive play - such as eight-a-side games - involving fewer players.

"We are delighted that the UK Government have given their permission for recreational cricket to return from next weekend," the ECB said in a statement. "We will shortly be publishing our approved guidelines to help clubs and players prepare for cricket's return.

"The ECB believes that cricket is a non-contact sport, with very low risks of exposure, and that it can be played as safely as many other activities being currently permitted.”

Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said that “it is perfectly possible to have cricket where people do keep their distance. And provided people don’t do things that are clearly not sensible - ranging from hugging the bowler if they’ve just bowled someone for a duck through to sitting on the ball - it should be possible to make the game itself really very safe.

“It’s not a contact sport in the sense that some of the high-risk outdoor sports are. There are however risks associated which we just need to think about and deal with. These are perfectly manageable but a particular one would be people going in afterwards in a crowded space to the pavilion to have tea or a beer.”

“The overriding feeling I have is one of utter relief,” said Simon Prodger, the managing director of the National Cricket Conference, who are the voice of the club game.

“This is a huge boost for club cricket - it's come later then it should to be honest but it will at least allow clubs to play cricket.

“I'm just relieved it's happened. It's been a long-winded and torturous process and I don't know quite what happened between 10 o'clock and half past five. I'm assuming that he might have gone off and actually got some advice from people that really know what they're talking about.”

Clubs had feared that players could be lost to the sport forever without any club cricket this summer.

“It allows the amateur game to consider proper cricket, and what can be done in terms of competitive cricket as far as leagues are concerned,” Prodger said. “This could have badly affected the ongoing participation in women's cricket and junior cricket, if we weren't able to do anything at all this summer.”

The Prime Minister has previously called the cricket ball a “natural vector of disease” but made clear in his radio interview with LBC that the ball was not a particular problem.

The impasse in England has contrasted with that around Europe. Recreational cricket is already being played in countries including Germany, Finland, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland and Cyprus.

On Saturday, Holland will become the latest country to allow club cricket to resume after leagues were allowed to begin. During sports matches, social distancing rules do not apply, so wicket-keepers are allowed to stand up to the stumps, but any direct physical contact between players, like high-fives, is barred. All players must wash their hands during drinks breaks and applying any saliva or spit to the ball is barred.  

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