Gareth Batty opens up on uncertainty of season disrupted by coronavirus

Batty is one of eight Surrey players self-isolating; he returned from commentary duties in South Africa with a cough

Surrey off-spinner Gareth Batty has opened up on the mental strain facing professional cricketers, should the county season be delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Batty is one of eight Surrey players self-isolating; he returned from commentating in South Africa with a cough. Six members of the club’s playing staff were originally in self-isolation, before Tom Curran and Jade Dernbach were added after they socialised with Alex Hales following his return from the Pakisrtan Super League.

Hales has since revealed that he has developed symptoms, leaving Curran and Dernbach to take the precaution.

“It’s a very difficult time,” Batty told TalkSPORT’s Cricket Collective, “obviously for everyone out there, but certainly for professional sportspeople in a very unique position.

“Your body is your currency and if you can’t do the right things and put the right things into it, you feel like you’re missing a trick.

“Obviously, everyone is on WhatsApp groups and the boys have been pinging messages around, checking that everyone is okay. The PCA have been sending out emails. They have been magnificent.”

^{Gareth Batty signed a new one-year deal in October}

Not knowing when – or if – the season is likely to begin has added major uncertainty.

Measures related to domestic and international cricket have not yet been confirmed or announced but the ECB and the 18 counties will meet on Thursday to discuss contingency plans, with the expectation that the campaign will be unable to begin as scheduled on April 12 with a round of County Championship fixtures.

Anything to emerge from the meeting on Thursday will have to be passed through the ECB board. All options are reportedly being looked at, with large-scale postponements and the prospect of games being played behind closed doors among them.

“The unknown is the biggest problem for everybody and it’s no different when you’re involved in sport,” Batty added. “If anything, it’s probably worse because a lot of our lives are structured. You know you’re practising for a certain event. At the minute, you’re not practising for anything.

“Most of the time, a player can do something about it – he or she can go out and get fitter, they can practise more. To an extent, your career is in your own hands. But at this moment in time, it is not. It has been taken away – and rightly so.”

Batty, who will turn 43 later this year, signed a one-year extension to his deal with the Oval county in October, taking him through to the end of the coming campaign.

How county pre-season plans have been affected by COVID-19

“I might never play cricket again, thinking I’d signed a pro contract that I would still play,” he admitted. “For the youngsters, it’s far greater. They are at the start of something, they’ve not had those memories or fulfilled some of those dreams.

“To deal with that mentally – to be cooped up at home when you’re normally very active, to deal with it in the correct way is vital. Because as much as it’s physical, it’s very difficult mentally.

“Let’s be honest, we’re not starting in April – we’re probably nearer with June or July. How do you go through that? To be brutally honest, I’m nowhere. I don’t know what to do.”