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Men’s Cricket Ashes series hangs in the balance as teams await Covid results

ENGLAND and Australia were facing a nervous overnight wait for Covid test results as the continuation of the Ashes series hung in the balance.

The Boxing Day Test in Melbourne was plunged into uncertainty on the second morning, when it became clear that the virus had infiltrated England’s wider touring party.

A family member who had spent Christmas with the extended squad showed symptoms during the previous evening and tested positive after taking a rapid antigen test.

That immediately sent up a red flag and England were told to disembark the team bus and return to the hotel to receive a round of lateral flow tests. There were three further positives – another family member as well as two members of the backroom staff – but crucially all of the playing squad came back negative.

Discussions took place between England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tom Harrison, who linked up with the side this week, his Cricket Australia counterpart Nick Hockley and local health officials in Victoria and it was decided that the day’s play could go ahead with nothing more than a half-hour delay. 

Stuart Broad and Craig Overton, who were not in the playing XI this week, did not travel to the MCG as a precaution.

It was agreed that both teams would take PCR tests, which take longer to process but are more reliable indicators, this evening. Should there be cases within either camp the match and the series would be in doubt.

Playing conditions do currently allow for Covid substitutes but the scale of any additional spread, plus who counts as a close contact, leaves plenty of unanswered questions.

Both teams adopted more stringent measures around the shared dressing room spaces but there was no attempt at distancing on the field of play, as each team celebrated wickets with the usual embraces rather than the fist bumps which became common earlier in the pandemic.

England bowler James Anderson was clear that the will existed to continue with the scheduled five Tests but accepted that there was little certainty. The tourists are now well versed in the possible outcomes, having cancelled two overseas trips in 2020 – a Test tour of Sri Lanka and a white-ball visit to South Africa – and seen India walk out of the deciding Old Trafford Test last summer.

“As long as the group that’s at the ground today are negative I don’t see why we can’t carry on,” he said.

“I’m sure that’s the plan but it depends on PCR tests and what situation that leaves us in. It’s very hard for me to answer that, to be honest. We’re all having PCR tests now and we’ll need all those to be clear really, if possible. We’ll just have to wait and see what the results are.”

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