Reopening nets comes with challenges that amateur clubs will have to face

NICK FRIEND: Reservation systems will be crucial; clubs with both junior and senior sections and a couple of nets will have to work out a way of controlling the flow of keen batsmen and bowlers

Cricket clubs will be faced with a dilemma, following the news that nets can be reopened and practice – albeit in small groups, while maintaining social distancing – restarted.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a moment in this coronavirus crisis that I – like many others, I’m sure – have been waiting for; an occasion marked in the calendar as an opportunity of sorts to return to a central part of my summer, even if there is a feeling of inevitability that any amateur league season will have to wait until 2021. In Scotland, that decision has already been made.

The quandary, therefore, is less around the reopening of practice facilities, but rather the extent of measures and precautions that clubs will feel the need to put in place before members can be invited to turn their arms over – however dangerously rusty they may be.

That will involve club committees listing the potential risk elements and devising plans to minimise any threat of spreading or transmitting Covid-19 through use of the nets.

READ THE FULL ECB GUIDANCE

That conversation, as one can imagine, is hardly brief, even with the ECB having now issued its full guidance on the matter. “Nets should be used on an ‘every other’ basis, leaving one net free between nets,” it states.

Do we want people putting their hands on the gate to the cage that houses the lanes? Is it a separate risk altogether to keep unlocked and open? How do we ensure that everyone remains two metres apart from one another?

What about the bowling machine: can we have people pushing their hands through a bucket of balls that will be used by everyone looking to make use of the machine? Will all feeders have to wear gloves?

The sharing of equipment is not recommended in the guidance – that will apply to everything: helmets, gloves and balls to name just three.

That all feels eminently manageable, all part of this new world to which we are becoming conditioned. Clubhouses, however, will remain closed except for use of toilets and first aid, with players having to provide their own refreshments. The ECB's new guidelines state that hand sanitiser should be provided in each active net lane – that is neither cheap nor in grand supply, while the closure of pavilions mean that it will be difficult for clubs to store their own onsite.

^{England's bowlers are also set to resume one-to-one training sessions}

The greatest challenge in all this may well be restricting numbers. There is not a cricketer in the land who has not spent the months from October through to May staring out of their windows, pining for even the most rudimentary opportunity to strap on the pads and hit a few balls. Even more so since it was announced that golf could once again be played. When the weather has allowed it in these last two months, the parks have often been busy despite the advice against it.

So, when nets are indeed available once more, members will likely flock to their local clubs for their exercise. The risk then, of course, is of overcrowding. Booking in advance will be key – a foreign concept in itself.

One of the glorious joys of a summer’s afternoon is of rolling into the car park, dragging your bag up the path and joining whichever group is already netting – squeezing yourself into the bowling queue perhaps, even requesting a bat if it’s not too late in the day.

Reservation systems will be crucial; clubs with both junior and senior sections and a couple of nets will have to work out a way of controlling the flow of keen batsmen and bowlers. That urge to join in with mates will have to be resisted.

Amateur clubs don't have lifeguards or nightclub bouncers on the door to enforce all this. Common sense – a buzzphrase of the last week – will be necessary, as will the importance of self-policing.

Food for thought. It will be strange, though every single provision will be for the best. So, treasure that first net back – it has been a long time in coming. But follow whatever guidelines set out. Enjoy it and stay safe.

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