Test cricket behind closed doors: Distanced huddles, fist bumps and the hum of air conditioning units

The clearest indication that life was very different at the Ageas Bowl on Wednesday was that Rod Bransgrove was not allowed to go into the Rod Bransgrove Pavilion.

Bransgrove was one of around 280 people allowed into the Ageas Bowl but his pass did not permit entry to the pavilion that bears his name because it was deemed part of the ‘inner zone’ for players and officials only.

But Bransgrove, the Hampshire chairman whose vision and money built this ground, was delighted to abide by the rules and watch the game from the Shane Warne Stand with a sense of pride that weeks of work by his staff and the England & Wales Cricket Board had come to fruition.

Bransgrove hopes this is the start of a new relationship for the Ageas Bowl with international cricket and that stepping in along with Emirates Old Trafford to save the summer, and around £80m in broadcast fees, will be repaid in the future.

This has been a mutually beneficial arrangement of course. The Ageas Bowl, with its onsite hotel, made biosecurity easier to guarantee than at a big city ground and by block booking the otherwise empty Hilton, the ECB has pumped valuable business into a county that Bransgrove said recently was losing “a couple of million pounds a month” in lockdown.

This is the first of three Tests at a ground that had only hosted three in the last nine years and was passed over in favour of the traditional venues when the last of fixture allocation took place two years ago. Now it occupies an unusual place in cricket history as the venue for the first Test match in England to be played under such Covid restrictions, and part of a blueprint for other boards around the world to follow.

The biggest worry for Bransgrove was that someone would go down ill with Covid symptoms and questions would be asked about whether something, somewhere, had been overlooked.

It was nearly provided by Ben Stokes and Jason Holder. The West Indies captain automatically stuck out his hand for a handshake after the toss, Stokes realised at the last second and offered a fist bump instead. “Sanitize those hands quick,” said Ian Ward on Sky.

After the toss and interviews, the microphones held by the players were cleaned with disinfectant wipes and they put their masks back on.

There were six hand sanitizer stations dotted around the boundary, just behind the LED advertising boards, and masks were obligatory for those not on the field. The groundstaff and third umpire wore masks as they stood in the rain.

The day very much felt like a practice match on an England tour. No spectators, no food vendors or bars and the voices of the players on the field carried across the empty stands. You could hear the loud hum of the air conditioning units.

The Boundary Bar at the northern end was shuttered, the adverts on the outside for Greene King IPA a reminder of what a day at Test cricket in the sunshine is normally about.

The concourse that is normally bustling with spectators queuing at food vans was instead handy storage for the groundsman’s equipment and for the operator of the Sky Sports drone who parked up his transit van and had a perfect view of the ground.

The England team huddle was all conducted at a social distance. The quietly spoken Alastair Cook or Joe Root would have struggled to have been heard by 25 people standing two metres apart but Stokes’s message obviously got through given the applause of the players following his short speech.

Right down to the little red dots stuck above plug sockets, light switches and door handles to show the cleaners they are ‘heavy touch points’ that needed an extra wipe of disinfectant, it felt as though no stone, or bottle of hand sanitizer, had been left unturned.

The ECB have confirmed all Tests this summer will be played under such strict rules and some will no doubt stay with us for a long time. It could be a little while until Bransgrove can walk back in his pavilion.