Cricket's return to the Channel Islands: How Guernsey have got the game back up and running

NICK FRIEND: The island hosted a T20 exhibition game at the weekend, with plans for more to follow. All being well, their domestic season could get underway at the end of the month

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The virtual high-fives stood out as cricket returned to Guernsey – the first game of this strange summer to be played on the British Isles.

Whenever a wicket fell, the camera panned to the fielders naturally spaced out around the KGV Ground in Castel. They would run in to congratulate one another, but never excessively; their long-distance celebrations provided the most profound symbol of what cricket, for some time at least, will look like upon its return.

Since sport was cancelled, the game’s governing body on the island has been working towards its resumption.

Discussions with the sports commission laid the groundwork; Guernsey Cricket went away to put together a document detailing its route back to match-play. Guidelines were analysed and borrowed from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand and the ICC. One stumbling block to tackle came in separating cricket from being recognised as a contact sport. As the island’s successful control of the virus continued – it has been 35 days since the most recent new confirmed case, the game put its proposal to the government.

And so, it led to this. The weekend represented something significant as a T20 exhibition match took place, featuring players from the national player pool – minus those based in England – with funds raised going to the Covid-19 appeal.

Crucially, it proved a success. The game was streamed via YouTube both to show off Guernsey to the world and, more pertinently, to display how cricket can exist in a post-virus world. More than 84,000 have watched it, including a fine diving catch from Matt Renouf at backward square leg.

Vanuatu became the first country to bring back live cricket when the Pacific island nation staged the first in a series of T10 matches in late April and a women's T20 final. This, however, is the first that the British Isles has witnessed.

“One of the things was that we wanted to be the first ones out of the gate,” Guernsey Cricket chief executive Mark Latter told The Cricketer.

“Clearly, there’s no race against health or anything like that, but we knew there would be some focus if we could do so. We still wanted to make sure that the game looked like the game. If we’d been told that you had to bat one at a time, we wouldn’t have bothered because it wouldn’t have looked like cricket.

“But we were pretty much allowed to lead the game broadly along normal lines, bar certain things like bowlers looking after their own gear and not giving it to the umpire, umpires having the opportunity to wear gloves and players turning up ready without using the changing rooms.”

Hand sanitiser was available to players on entry and exit from the field of play, while it was also on offer for match officials.

While the prohibition of saliva on the ball has been widely discussed as a possible complication at professional level, Guernsey’s use of a white ball – by no means a special move to deal with the pandemic – unwittingly offers an intriguing alternative. Traditionally, it does not offer much movement for long periods and, thus, is rarely worked on by the fielding side in the same way as the red ball.

The upshot of all this is that Guernsey intend to have their domestic structure in place at the end of the month.

The island’s handling of the virus has been effective; as well as experiencing no new confirmed cases for over a month, the overall figure of positive tests sits at 252, with 13 deaths.

The border is closed and those who do enter the country have to spend a mandatory fortnight in quarantine, with a £10,000 fine awaiting anyone who flouts the regulation.

The evening league, which is played either as 16-over or 20-over games on weeknights, could begin on June 29, effectively starting from what – in a normal year – would have been the competition’s halfway mark. The Channel Islands Cricket League, where sides from Guernsey and Jersey face each other, will not take place. Rather, a separate weekend competition for clubs in Guernsey will be scheduled instead, while a 40-over tournament for club second teams will be revamped as a T20 event, with two matches per day across two different venues.

“Basically, the second half of the season will look pretty much like it would have done anyway, and we’ve just had to squeeze up a couple of the weekend pieces,” Latter explained. “And we’re looking still to maybe do a little bit more in terms of exhibition games before we start, while we’ve got this window and the world watching.

“There are still things to look at and we’re not 100 per cent sure where the answer is: the dreaded club kit bag and the club box and things like that.

“Given that we are Covid-free and in general life doing a lot more normal things, it would be very strange if on a sports field we didn’t do stuff that we would be doing day to day because we are that little bit further ahead. It’s kind of trying to risk assess it and then take a common sense approach.

“Our phase five wasn’t due to happen probably until about August originally. But now, because we’re moving forward, it could be a couple of weeks away.

“I think at phase five of the social distancing protocols, it’s meant to become best practice rather than demand. Places will decide what they do or don’t do. We’ll issue a best practice, so that you don’t cram into changing rooms. If you can arrive ready to go, then do so.

“We will keep the sanitiser around and everything else, but while we’ve got the border locked down and we go day by day without another case, we’re hopefully protecting from something that doesn’t exist.”

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In England, recreational players have been able to return to nets, while England have selected a 55-man group to return to training

There have been conversations with the English game around how Guernsey might be able to assist. “It is not impossible,” Latter suggested tentatively of the idea that county cricket could be staged on the island.

He has watched with interest as the ECB has worked to bio-secure its venues for England’s Test series against West Indies in July, while Guernsey has effectively returned to some semblance of normality more comfortably.

Guernsey is in phase four of its transition out of lockdown, with only two more stages to come. Two of its venues – the KGV Ground and College Field – would certainly match up to the quality of several county outgrounds.

“I think our issue is that we have a 14-day quarantine period with our border – proper isolation,” Latter said. “If you’re found to have left your room, you get a £10,000 fine, so it’s a proper serious thing. But when someone suggested on Twitter that we host the Premier League, which was very fanciful, the minister said: ‘Why not, let’s look at it.’

“So, we instantly took that as the case and thought: ‘What could we do?’ If two or three people rocked up and said they were coming to Guernsey for a few beers, we wouldn’t let them come anywhere near and they’d be locked in a box for 14 days, no question.

“If it’s professional sportspeople with a huge medical history, our public health might be able to look at it and risk assess it. There would still be lockdown and quarantine requirements and they may have to train within the hotel grounds or wherever else – we could set up an artificial net there or do something.”

Image: Guernsey Cricket

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