England players welcome ECB’s personalised training programmes during COVID-19 pandemic   

There may be no training schedules to follow at this moment but England captains Joe Root (men’s) and Heather Knight (women’s) are still following their personalised training programmes with no one knowing when this COVID-19 pandemic will end and they can get back to the cricket field again.

Earlier, last week, the England and Wales Cricket Board had announced a seven-week delay to the start of the 2020 season. Each of England’s centrally contracted men’s and women’s players have been given an individualised training programme.

The County Championship comprising four-day first-class matches is scheduled to start on April 12. And although England’s home Test series against West Indies is not meant to commence until June 4, the County Championship is also under cloud to start on scheduled date with the ECB saying on Tuesday (March 24) there ‘is uncertainty surrounding when, or if, the domestic and international summer will start’.

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Knight hoped to lead her team against India this season at home in July. “It’s obviously not ideal but it’s a great way of trying to stay in shape and keep ticking over,” said Knight who took her team to the T20 World Cup semi-finals.  “This is a new challenge – we’ll all just be doing what we can to maintain our levels and hopefully be as ready as we can when we get back playing, whenever that comes.”

ECB’s national lead coach for strength and conditioning Rob Ahmun, said the board had provided centrally contracted men’s and women’s players with a ‘home training’ package, including ropes, resistance bands, medicine ball and a kettle ball.

“If the season does come about and we know we have, say, a six week build-up to the season we’ve ensured the players aren’t starting for a training base of zero, they’re starting from a decent base so they can hit the ground running,” he said.