Cricket West Indies ‘confident’ England tour will take place

The Chief Executive of the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Johnny Graves said that his side’s tour to England will go ahead as planned.

“From
where we sit at the moment, based on the information we have, based on the fact
that every day there are less and less cases in the UK everyone is getting
increasingly confident that the tour will happen at some point,” Graves said
while speaking with ESPNcricinfo. “Our board meeting is on May 28. If the tour
has to take place, by the start of June we would need to have the [CWI] board
approval and support by then in order to get the charter flight logistics in
place and select the players.”

The
CWI official stated the board is expecting to get a formal offer for touring
England at the end of the month.

Graves
said that the visiting side would require four weeks to prepare its side before
the three-match Test series begins.

He said the plan is to prepare a 25-member squad for the Test tour which will make up of 15 players and 10 reserves.

Graves stated there are apprehensions about leaving families for seven weeks. “There is apprehension about moving into a biosecure cricket ground for the first time. There is apprehension about travelling on planes and going to the UK, which has had so many cases.”

England are to host West Indies for a three-match Test series. The first Test will take place at The Oval from June 4-8. The second game will be played in Birmingham from June 12-16. The third and final Test is scheduled from June 25-29 at Lord’s.

However, the tour may get affected due to the travel restrictions enforced due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/sports/2020/05/cricket-west-indies-confident-england-tour-will-take-place/