Delay the Ashes or change rules to avoid farcical tour

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The Australian government has to do what it can to make its country safe, but it cannot suddenly expect all sports teams to bend over backwards to follow the rules when its own teams are not willing to leave its shores.

If this situation is not sorted out quickly and the England players allowed to be joined in Australia by their families then the Ashes have to be delayed by a year. If not, it would be a farcical series against an understrength England team.

The Ashes must be the best against the best. If England lose half their team, they have to put it back a year until, hopefully, the virus is under control. You cannot go to Australia, the hardest place to play, with only half your first-choice team. Broadcasters did not pay a lot of money to show a series like that. It would lack credibility.

Some people will not have sympathy for the England players. They will think they are lucky to earn a lot of money and go to places such as Australia. I can understand that, but quite a few of them are parents, too. We should not just dismiss them as rich sportsmen and say, “Get on with it”.

They are human beings. I have absolute sympathy with any player thinking of not going and I would back them all the way if they pulled out because they cannot be with their families at Christmas and New Year. It is hard enough to face 150km/h bouncers, but to then go back to your room and talk to your wife and kids on Zoom with all the potential family issues we all have to deal with as well would be very hard and mentally draining.

You have to go back 30 or 40 years for times when players did not have their families on tour in Australia. Times have changed. Family life has changed.

Michael Vaughan celebrates England’s shock Ashes triumph in 2005.Credit:AP

No sporting team would be expected to do this. If it was the first year of the bubble I would perhaps say fair enough, but these lads have been living in bubbles for more than a year. They are about to go into another one on Friday for the five-Test series against India.

You cannot keep asking people to do that. Some will go to the T20 World Cup in mid-September and not be home until the end of January. Can they be expected to be away from their families for that long? No. The England and Wales Cricket Board has to be strong. If the Australian government says no then the ECB has to say we are not coming.

Remember, seven Australians refused to go on their just-completed tour of the West Indies because they did not want to live in a bubble and quarantine when they got home. Those Australians have not been in half the number of bubbles the England players have. Australia pulled out of a tour to South Africa earlier this year as well.

They did not spend the whole of their last summer in hotel rooms at cricket grounds locked away from everyone like our players did.

Cricket Australia and the players do not have an ounce of argument to say England have to come because they have set a precedent. Plus, Australia’s rugby league team have pulled out of the World Cup. Once you do that you cannot blame other countries for refusing to go to Australia.

We need the Ashes. But we need the series to be fair and competitive. We know Australia will have their best team. It is not an Ashes series if England are understrength. The clock is ticking. It takes time to organise visas and for England to make other plans if some players decide not to go. It was unthinkable not that long ago that England players would pass up on going to an Ashes in Australia. It is the pinnacle. But that is where we are at.

Telegraph, London

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