Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) chief executive Todd Greenberg has recently asked all the players to do their “homework” before going to play in the overseas T20 leagues in the near future amid the crunch time of the global pandemic novel COVID-19. With their country ban all the flights for all from India, the suspended IPL’s 40-odd people, including players, support staff and commentators, will travel to the Maldives before getting a connecting flight for Australia.
“I’m not sure it will create reticence (in the future) but it will ensure players do their due diligence before they sign agreements,” Greenberg was quoted as saying ESPNcricinfo. “The world is literally changing before our eyes particularly with Covid and on that side of the world, obviously, those cases are going up exponentially.”
Australia, meanwhile, has sealed its borders from India until May 15 due to the deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the BCCI and IPL Governing Council to postponement the cash-rich league on Tuesday. While a few players like Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and Josh Philippe, withdrew before IPL-14 giving bubble fatigue as reason, others like Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson and Andrew Tye have pulled out of the event midway and managed to return home before the government closed their border as well.
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Greenberg added, “We’re enjoying our freedoms here in Australia. It is a very different place over there. If anything it sends a message to players about making sure you do your homework before making any decisions. I was at pains to point it out during the week, the public will see our best Australian cricketers as almost superheroes, they’re brilliant athletes, great cricketers, but they’re human beings, some of them are fathers and husbands and they’re under enormous amounts of stress.”
“Some deal with it differently. This will probably be an experience they will never forget. We will help them when they come home. Some will cope with it really well, others will need support and counselling and that’s what we’ll do,” he further added.
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He concluded, “They signed up with their eyes wide open about some of the challenges and risks when they went in. What they didn’t expect was the borders to be closed. That created anxiety for them, just like it would create anxiety for the 9,000-odd Australians over there looking to come home. That’s a normal reaction for our players.”
