By Andrew Wu
Cricket Australia have taken the extraordinary measure of chartering another flight to shield Australia’s players from the COVID outbreak in the England camp, as match referee David Boon became the latest from the Ashes circuit to test positive to the virus.
News of Boon’s situation came just minutes before the national governing body announced the postponement of the Big Bash League game between the Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Stars on a dramatic afternoon for Australian cricket.
Earlier in the day, England’s head coach Chris Silverwood was sidelined from the New Year’s Test due to a positive case in his family, leaving the visiting team’s coaching ranks on the verge of crisis. Batting coach Graham Thorpe, the last man standing among England’s permanent coaching staff, will take the reins in Sydney.
It is unclear what implications it would have on the series if Thorpe was to also test positive or be deemed a close contact of a case.
Boon, who is asymptomatic and fully vaccinated, including a booster, will remain in Melbourne and quarantine for 10 days, but the Tasmanian is expected to return for the fifth Test in Hobart. He has been replaced as match referee in Sydney by the NSW-based Steve Bernard, a former long-serving team manager of the national men’s team.
Cricket authorities were sweating on the results of another round of testing conducted on Thursday before both squads travel to Sydney on Friday on separate flights, having initially been booked to fly together.
David Boon.Credit: Getty Images
The estimated $30,000 to $50,000 CA is spending to charter a second flight and separate the two groups is a small expense compared to the tens of millions on the line should infections spread into Australian ranks.
Though both squads have been staying at the same hotels, efforts have been made to minimise interaction away from the field. Cordoned off from the public, the two sides stayed on separate floors in Melbourne and used different lifts. The 90-minute flight would be the only time they would spend a prolonged period together between now and the game starting on Wednesday.
There is anxiety among the visitors at the growing number of cases in their group, which has swollen from four on Monday morning to seven by Thursday. They have been unable to pinpoint exactly how they came into contact with the virus.
Remarkably, the spread has not reached the players or their families, but it has left England’s coaching staff wafer thin.
England had no other option but to make batting coach Thorpe the stand-in for Silverwood in Sydney with Jeetan Patel (spin), Jon Lewis (fast bowling) and Darren Veness (strength and conditioning) having tested positive.
The other members of the coaching staff unaffected - James Foster and Ant Botha - have both been hired as consultants. Foster, who specialises in wicket-keeping, and Botha, whose primary job was to throw balls using the dog stick with his left-arm to mimic Mitchell Starc, will now undertake broader roles while their colleagues complete isolation.
Silverwood, whose job is on the line after England’s horror campaign, and his family must complete 10 days of isolation. It is expected Silverwood, the sole selector under the England board’s selection structure, will still pick the XI for the fourth Test despite being away from the team.
Both teams will continue to be under level four restrictions in Sydney, preventing them from eating indoors, or attending bars, and only shopping by click and collect.
NSW recorded a further 12,226 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, up from 11,201 the day before.
Venues NSW chair Tony Shepherd expressed confidence the Sydney Test would not become a superspreader event.
“I’m confident that it won’t be, but you can never tell,” Shepherd told The Age and the Herald. “The main thing to remember is most of the 30,000 will be outside in the open air. From what we know now from statistics it would seem virtually all the spreading events have been inside.”