Australia wicketkeeper Matthew Wade said he would not be passing judgment on England having concerns about Covid requirements when travelling for the Ashes.
England’s Ashes tour is set to go ahead at full strength after the England and Wales Cricket Board gave the Australia trip the conditional green light.
An ECB board meeting on Friday approved the tour “subject to several critical conditions being met”, while it is understood there will be some leeway for players to train outdoors during their mandatory 14-day quarantine period when entering the country.
Speaking to reporters from hotel quarantine in Abu Dhabi ahead of the T20 World Cup, Wade said: “In these times, it’s challenging for everyone.
“You know, it’s easy to judge people and decisions that individuals are making but until you’ve been put in these environments, in these positions, and had to play under these conditions, I think it’s hard to pass judgement on anyone.”
Australia will meet England at the group stage of the World Cup, more than a month before the first Ashes Test is due to begin in Brisbane.
Wade said: “Some guys struggle more with quarantine than others, there’s no hiding that.
“That’s the challenge that professional cricketers have at the moment. You know, our sport is played overseas, we have to go overseas to play and to keep the game going, we understand that, and (some) individuals find it harder than others.
“There’s no difference between what England are going through now to what every other team goes through to go away and play.
“It’s not easy and I don’t pass judgement on any team or any individual for the challenges that they’re facing.
“They’re trying to work it all out. And I’m confident the Ashes is going to go ahead. It’s never been a doubt in my mind, to be honest. But there are challenging parts of it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here