Hampshire Cricket Board to sort out ‘micro bubble’ leagues when grassroots game can restart

The HCB have emailed every club that is affiliated with them to ask who would be interested in forming small groups to play a mini-league competition.

Clubs have until next Tuesday morning to register their interest and the HCB will then split them into groups - ideally within a 30-minute travelling range. Within a week, fixture lists will have been generated.

‘The more clubs that register, the smaller the groups we can have, the more games we can play,’ said HCB cricket development officer Simon Jones.

‘We’ll draw up the fixture lists and then give them to the clubs.

‘The message will be ‘now it’s up to you, here’s the contact details, talk among yourselves. You can play Saturdays, Sundays, evenings, bank holidays. Do whatever you want, but just play!’

In yesterday’s edition of The News, Jones talked about clubs in other parts of the country forming ‘micro bubble’ groups once cricket is allowed to begin on a date yet to be confirmed.

That is the template he is aiming to see used on the south coast.

‘If we had four-team groups, that would mean six games on a home and away basis,’ he said.

‘If we started on the last Saturday of July, that would take us through to the last Saturday in August.

‘But it’s totally flexible. If teams agreed to play T20s you can have more than one game a day.’

Jones said that clubs in the Winchester area have already agreed to take part in a tournament.

Sparsholt chairman Andy Worth came up with the idea last Monday and within two days 220 teams - from 10 or 11 clubs - had declared their interest.

Elsewhere, the ECB has reiterated its stance that recreational cricket is safe to play.

While tennis has been allowed to resume by the government following the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of grassroots cricketers are still inactive as they wait for the green light.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hinted that recreational cricket is not yet safe to be played due to issues surrounding communal teas and dressing rooms.

But the governing body disputes that and says it has provided protocols on how the game can be restarted.

‘The ECB believes that cricket is a non-contact sport, with very low risks of exposure, and that it can be played as safely as many other activities being currently permitted,’ it said in a statement.

‘The detailed submission we have shared with the Department For Digital, Culture, Media and Sport includes advice on how we can stage cricket safely and mitigate all potential risks.

‘We believe this advice - allied with strict hygiene measures - means recreational cricket should be viewed as safe by the UK Government, which would be welcome news to our nation's recreational cricketers.’

Johnson had previously described the cricket ball as a ‘vector of disease’ but today said the dangers were more widespread.

‘There are reasons. These debates have gone round and round,’ he said on LBC Radio.

‘There are various other considerations. The longer answer, which I think probably (chief medical officer) Chris Whitty would give if he were here about cricket, the risk is not so much the ball, although that may be a factor.

‘It's the teas, it's the changing rooms and so on and so forth.

‘There are other factors involved that generate proximity which you might not get in a game of tennis.’