Broad backs ‘tough but necessary’ decision to return home

LONDON: Stuart Broad has backed the “very tough, but necessary” decision made by the ECB to postpone England’s tour of Sri Lanka over fears about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ECB announced on Friday that the two-Test series had been postponed indefinitely, stating that “the physical and mental wellbeing of our players and support teams is paramount”, and the touring party were due to fly home this weekend.

Writing in a Mail on Sunday column, Broad admitted that the players were “sad to be leaving”, but stressed that he supported the call to put the squad and the fans first. “It was quite an eerie feeling on Friday when Joe Root addressed us as a squad to let us know that the tour of Sri Lanka was off,” Broad wrote. “Out there we felt quite a long way from the levels of worry in England.

“Obviously we had been kept up to date with what was happening back home via social media and it was quite surreal to see people fighting over loo roll in the supermarkets. “The atmosphere has been quite different in Sri Lanka because there have not been as many cases of coronavirus, so although as a squad we have instigated social spacing, and have been very careful, we have not witnessed any of the changes in daily life that have perhaps occurred here.”

Broad said that there were several “what ifs” from the players’ perspective, with fears that if one member of the touring party tested positive for the illness then everyone else would have to go into self-isolation for two weeks.

“What would happen if a family member fell ill at home, and we had been in quarantine overseas? That would have meant no way of getting back to them. “What would happen if one of our supporters got it and it then started spreading through the rest of the fans? There were an estimated 3,000 set to travel,”

“The call came from the top, whether from Tom Harrison, or Ashley Giles, or others in the hierarchy at the ECB. They made a very tough but necessary decision and credit to them for putting the players and the fans first.”