The top brass of Cricket Australia believes that setting up direct communication with the England players and the captain Joe Root helped them get over the uncertainties surrounding the biosecure bubble in Australia and paving the way for the Ashes series to go as planned.
Australian players’ chief Todd Greenberg has said that England players needed a comprehensive understanding of the state of Covid-19 in the country and how things will shape up while their visit for the big series and they were able to provide enough information for the same in their online briefing to players.
Greenberg also said that England players have all the right questions and assured “fantastic” conditions for them to have a “great” Ashes summer starting December this year.
“For the England players, they needed some level of surety from us that what’s happened in the previous three months is probably not indicative of what might happen in the next three,” Greenberg told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“We’ve talked to them about that, we’ve talked to them about the vaccination rates, about the planning with governments. The long and the short of it, for me, is the England players have handled themselves really well, they’ve asked the right questions, they’ve been really professional in the way they’ve dealt with that and all credit to them. They’re going to get a good result here because the conditions they’ll tour in will be fantastic, and we’ll have a great Ashes summer.”
Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley gave two virtual briefings to Joe Root-led England players that reportedly quelled their apprehensions and leading to their commitment to the tour.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is all set to give a green light to the Ashes series after successful negotiations with Cricket Australia and England are likely to select a “strong” squad to tour Australia in a bid to regain the Ashes after the Tim Paine-led side retained the coveted trophy in their home conditions in 2019.