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England's Ashes tour: The players who are wavering and key questions answered

September 15, 2019 England's Joe Root and Australia's Tim Paine pose for a photo with the Ashes trophy after drawing the serie - Action Images via Reuters
September 15, 2019 England's Joe Root and Australia's Tim Paine pose for a photo with the Ashes trophy after drawing the serie - Action Images via Reuters

Why has there been doubt over the Ashes tour?

Many reasons. Firstly, the quarantine restrictions for players and families have had to be agreed. The players are likely to quarantine for 14 days on a golf resort in Gold Coast, Queensland, where there will be a period of hard quarantine where they have to remain in their rooms, before being allowed out to train for a few hours each day.

It is the quarantine for families that has been the major sticking point. Most will go in early December and fly into Victoria where it is expected that quarantine rules will have eased by then. A hotel resort near Melbourne has been offered for the partners and children. Once out of quarantine they will join up with the playing squad when they arrive in Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test.

The major problem is that each state has different rules with most states insisting on a two weeks quarantine even for travel from within Australia. The players worry about being caught in a state during a Covid outbreak and being locked down or subjected to a hard quarantine when they move to another city. State borders can be shut with little notice.

The players have also been pushing back on the strictness of the bio-bubble once out of quarantine. They have been assured they can leave hotels to play golf but are awaiting details on whether they will be able to socialise outside of hotel grounds

Which England players are wavering?

Jos Buttler has publicly stated he does not want to go to Australia without his family and is still wavering. However, it is understood he is likely to travel if arrangements can be made for his wife and children to join him in the United Arab Emirates this month, where he is due to play in the Twenty20 World Cup, before flying directly to Australia.

England captain Joe Root has now committed to the tour after a meeting between the England & Wales Cricket Board, Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley and players. With this significant news, it appears that a strong England squad will tour Down Under. Mainly it was senior players with young families such as Mark Wood and Chris Woakes who have doubts. James Anderson and Stuart Broad had committed publicly to going while younger players without families, or those establishing themselves in the team, will go.

What are the current Covid regulations in Australia?

How long have you got? Two week hard quarantine in a hotel for those travellers lucky enough to be granted an exemption. Melbourne and Sydney are in lockdown with only essential travel allowed. Perth is Covid free but Western Australia has closed its borders. Adelaide is low risk, but Brisbane has a rising case load, although very tiny. The future is tied up in the vaccination rate. Once it reaches the 80 per cent threshold, expected early December, quarantine will be cut to one week for international arrivals and inter state travel will resume.

When is a decision likely to be made?

The ECB board will meet later this week to approve the tour. The players are mulling up their own private decisions this week. The squad is likely to be picked either Friday or early next week once players have decided their availability.

Is there a serious chance of the tour being cancelled?

Not really and even less chance than previously now that Root has committed. It was Root’s decision to confirm his participation that proved the key development which ensured the series would go ahead.

There is no sense the ECB has the appetite to call off the tour and plunge a close ally, Cricket Australia, into financial meltdown.

What happens in the unlikely event the Ashes is postponed?

It could be played 12 months later, but that would create a major headache given the future tours programme is locked in until 2023 and most boards have their broadcast deals tied to it. To go next year England would have to rearrange their tour to Pakistan at the end of 2022. They may well have burnt a few bridges with Lahore, so don’t expect the PCB to bend over and help them rearrange an Ashes trip, and who could blame them.