Coronavirus Pandemic Spoils Cricket Australia's National Contracts Plan
Updated - 30 Mar 2020, 11:43 AM
Cricket Australia’s (CA) contract list announcement is set to be pushed by at least a month due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cricket all around the world has been suspended in the wake of the outbreak. All the international and major domestic events have been called off as the cricket boards around the world have prioritised safety over the game.
And with uncertainty prevailing over the game, CA has decided against announcing the national contracts on the previously scheduled dates. The CA officials had planned to bring forward announcement of contracts from May to April this year, in a bid to provide more certainty to the states given the flow-on effect, according to cricket.com.au.
Thus announcing the women’s list on Wednesday and men’s on Thursday would have assisted all parties. However that plan has been put on hold for now until the end of April, given the economic uncertainty due to the pandemic. The Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) agreed to the move while Australia women team’s captain Meg Lanning also gave the green light to the same.
“Given the uncertainty around what’s happening around the world at the moment, it makes sense to take a minute, take a breath and work out what we’re dealing with and what potential impacts it might have for the game moving forward,” Lanning told reporters on Monday.
“We’ve been communicating really well with Cricket Australia and the ACA, working together with them.
“At the moment, it’s about waiting a little while for everyone to get the relevant information and is ready to move forward with that,” she added.
Australia recently called off their home ODI series against New Zealand as well as the T20I series in New Zealand due to the outbreak. Their next scheduled series is the tour of Bangladesh in June and England in July. However, both the series are in doubt at the moment because of the pandemic.
