Australia coach Matthew Mott has backed the players in this crunch situation of amid novel coronavirus pandemic who knows a flexible approach is needed as the team is preparing for the next year’s ODI World Cup. Their limited-overs tour of South Africa was postponed for the time being due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the players have found themselves locked in the home which is not usual for them.
“I think we’re already got our head around the fact we’ll need to be flexible,” Matthew Mott told cricket.com.au.
“But with how well resourced our state programs are, we’ve almost been talking a lot about being able to get the players to train in their own states anyway. It’s a complete shutdown at the moment and they can’t get into the state facilities, but I think it’s an opportune time for them to think about what that’s going to look like,” added the head coach Matthew Mott.
On the other hand, Strength and conditioning coach Noel McCarthy has asked his players with small tasks that require little equipment now so that they get fit in the forced offseason.
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“It’s just giving them some small tools they can do in their own home,” the Australian coach explained. “The way they are now they can still run, so we’ve got some running programs in there as well. Noel has looked at it in a really positive sense, it’s just a slight change of focus really.”
“Generally we’d be doing more strength work at this stage, so this is just more running stuff and making sure they’re keeping fit that way. It’s just a slight adjustment on their programs. You can look at this in one of two ways – in a negative way and say this is going to be hard, or see it an opportunity to work on some fitness and clear their heads a bit and fill in some time,” he further added.
“There’s no doubt with the group we’ve got, they’re going to look at it in a really positive light and spend some time with their loved ones at home and then they’ve got a lot of time to train. I think they can use it well, there’s literally no distractions. I’ve got full confidence they’ll be working really hard,” they shared.
However, the Australian players will get plenty of cricket if the 2020-21 season can go ahead as scheduled including WBBL and domestic 50-over Women’s National Cricket League apart from their various international series.
