Wood willing to spend nine weeks in England camp

LONDON: England fast bowler Mark Wood has said he is prepared to spend more than two months away from his family if that’s what it takes to play this season’s home international series amid the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a report in the Guardian, the plan is for the squad to be kept in an ‘isolation bubble’ so as to reduce the risk of players contracting Covid-19, with daily temperature checks and swabs also part of the regime.

Trying to salvage lucrative men’s internationals is the priority for the England and Wales Cricket Board, with chief executive Tom Harrison warning a complete wipeout of the 2020 season could cost the governing body £380 million ($469 million).

England players can be with their families between matches during a standard home season, but Wood said what was being proposed was not that different from a tour schedule.

“I’d be willing to do it,” he told reporters in a conference call on Thursday.

“Being away on tour for long periods of time you sort of get used to it.

“It would be very hard but as long as the environment is safe, my family are safe and everybody else there is safe then I’d be willing to do it,” added Wood, currently in lockdown with his wife and baby son.

Some 30 players could be chosen for a run of six Tests behind closed doors staged at the Ageas Bowl, the headquarters of southern county Hampshire, and Manchester’s Old Trafford.