Opening batsman David Warner believes Australia’s upcoming limited-overs tour of England will be scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Australians were scheduled to play three One-Day Internationals and as many T20Is against England in July, although changes to the English country cricket season now make that impossible.
There was speculation the tour could be delayed until September but Warner was doubtful it would go ahead.
“At the moment it’s highly unlikely we’re going to go over there given what’s happened in England,” Warner told cricket.com.au. He said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s infection with COVID-19 showed the gravity of the problem in the host nation.
“He’s back up on his feet now and that’s fantastic news, but there’s a lot more to this than just sport being played,” said Warner. “The biggest picture is making sure we’re doing all the right things we can to flatten this curve and doing what we can do to play our bit in that. We’ve done a great job so far and all Australians should be credited.
Warner rejected the idea of resuming sport without spectators. “No doubt at all, you want crowds no matter where you go and where you play. I love playing in England, it’s awesome,” he said.
“You’ve always got someone, they always try and rev up. Fortunately for the team it’s pretty much just me, and that takes a lot of the heat off the other guys. We’re there to put bums on seats and hopefully we can entertain the crowd by playing a good brand of cricket.”
Australia have already cancelled a two-Test tour of Bangladesh in June, and a limited-overs home series against Zimbabwe is also in doubt.
Australia are due to host the T20 World Cup in October-November, for which the International Cricket Council has said it is “exploring all options”.
Cricket Australia is particularly keen to go ahead with a Test series against India due to be played after the T20 tournament, warning this month it could lose hundreds of millions of dollars if it was scrapped.