Ashes 2021-22: Adelaide drama forces broadcasters to think radical approach in trying to beat Covid

As Covid cases skyrocket and in the wake of another Adelaide Ashes scare, broadcasters are putting drastic measures in place to avoid having their entire teams wiped out.

The Adelaide Oval Test is dealing with more Covid drama. Picture: Getty Images

Concerned television executives plan to tackle the Covid crisis by splitting commentators into groups to safeguard them against an outbreak emergency.

A positive Covid case among the BBC’s Test Match Special crew caused major headaches on the fourth morning of the Adelaide Test on Sunday and was yet another reminder that the Ashes tour will continue to hang by a knife’s edge until the final Test is completed in mid January.

The English broadcaster, who has not been identified is understood to have interviewed England batsman Dawid Malan after play on Saturday night.

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Another Covid drama has engulfed the second Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval.

Sources said the interviewer was wearing a mask and there was no issue surrounding Malan’s participation in the rest of the match, but Cricket Australia still made the call to suspend on-field interviews with broadcasters for the remaining two days in Adelaide as South Australian health investigated.

Australian players were entering the ground as news broke.

There was a second positive case at Adelaide among the media contingent, understood to be a crew member stationed in the outer ground.

ABC’s commentary team including Jim Maxwell, Andrew Moore and Ian Chappell all arrived back in Sydney on Sunday night after they were unable to come to the ground due to their sharing of commentators with the BBC.

It’s understood Fox Cricket and Channel 7 executives will look at introducing contingency measures in Covid-ravaged Melbourne and Sydney to safeguard their coverage against the risk of an outbreak.

Commentators may be split into distinct groups and asked not to socialise with each other so that if one pod of callers went down, there would be another group that can still safely commentate on the action.

Fox and Seven will also have studio hubs set up in Melbourne and Sydney that they could work out of if an infection was to penetrate production staff at the ground.

In chaotic scenes in Adelaide on Sunday morning, ABC commentators were told to stay in their hotel, with the national broadcaster calling the day’s play out of remote studios in Perth.

Other media are delaying their entry to the ground as close and casual contacts of the BBC broadcaster were sent for tests.

Isa Guha had to get tested.

Glenn McGrath was also affected.

High profile commentators Isa Guha and Glenn McGrath were among those required to get tested, but Guha was allowed to return to the ground on Sunday after returning a negative result.

Pat Cummins had to withdraw from the Test because he was deemed a close contact on the eve of the match. Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc were lucky to escape as they sat outside in the same restaurant.

Starc revealed the pair’s decision to sit outdoors was only because they were jokingly brushing Cummins because he had failed to reply to an earlier text message about dinner plans.

“The spinner didn’t sleep. I slept quite fine. There wasn’t much I could do about it after it was done,” said Starc of a potentially disastrous situation where Australia could have had its entire bowling attack wiped out.

“It was just fortunate we were sitting outside. And it was almost a little piss take because Pat didn’t reply to a message, so we’d thought we’d sit away from him and sit outside. So it’s been a lucky one.”

Sanitation crews cleaned the media area which is shared by print, television and radio on the fourth floor of the Riverbank Stand.

The media have all had to have regular tests and wear masks while covering the cricket.