T

There is hardly a glimmer of cricket trial here, but there is certainly much to distract us from the very obvious problems of the world right now. Looking at this, one may get the impression that the game takes place in two completely different worlds.

Turn on your television at night in the UK and you can watch a grass bench full of strolling fans on beautiful grounds in New Zealand, as Kane Williamson’s impressive and low-key team – now officially the best in the world – runs their happy business. Go about, defying the game’s financial disparities to find new players (Kyle Jamieson is the latest star) and beat all comers.

Things across the Tasman Sea are a bit more tense and uncertain, but an amazing streak is going on between Australia and India and the sheer scale of the stadiums means that even if attendance is a fraction of capacity, the house still has several thousand.

So, there is a world where cricket runs in silly normality, and another where every step seems complicated.

related

But the truth is, the whole game is on the edge of the cliff. It’s just that in some places the house is closer to the shore and the wind is blowing a little more aggressively.

In Australia, things are not as simple as they seem. To take this action, players were forced to spend weeks on a fiscal quarantine. And in Australia, in particular, things are not just stressful on the ground. There is great uncertainty about where each game will be played as small groups of Kovid cases, and restrictions on player behavior are also causing problems. Everyone involved is tired of the experience.

Considering the current state of this country, England operates indefinitely in another world without congestion.

Therefore, Hambantota’s Wednesday morning news that no other England player has tested positive – in two sets of tests since arriving on Sunday, Moeen is the only positive – is a very welcome increase; On the one hand for the health of those involved, but on the other for a series that would be a much-appreciated distraction and which did not appear to be quite in doubt until Tuesday.

(

England players are now free to train in Sri Lanka after self-isolation in their hotel room

/ ECB)

All English bar players Moin and Chris Woakes, who have traveled with him from Birmingham to Heathrow, have been allowed out of their hotel rooms for training.

It seems, at this point, that the strict protocol for this series – no one other than the tour group is allowed to travel, so all UK shows will be from home – has been fine. followed.

But, over time, we are not out of the woods yet. There is another round of tests on Thursday in England and will have to be followed every five days. Sri Lanka is yet to return home safely from South Africa.