England cricket tour of Sri Lanka called off due to coronavirus

England’s cricketers will fly home from Sri Lanka on Friday, their tour having been called off amid the coronavirus pandemic that now threatens to do huge damage to the upcoming home summer. The decision to postpone the two-Test series was announced while Joe Root’s players were out in the middle on day two of their tour match in Colombo and followed overnight talks between the two boards and their respective governments.

Though the England and Wales Cricket Board released a statement the previous evening insisting the tour was going ahead, within this was the acknowledgment of an increasingly vulnerable position given supporters had begun flying out before Thursday’s first Test in Galle. Announcing the change in tack on Friday, an ECB spokesperson said: “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic worsening globally, and after discussions with Sri Lanka Cricket, we have today made the decision to return our players to the UK and postpone the forthcoming Test series between Sri Lanka and England.

“At this time, the physical and mental wellbeing of our players and support teams is paramount. We will now look to bring them home to their families as soon as possible. These are completely unprecedented times, and decisions like this go beyond cricket. We would like to thank our colleagues at Sri Lanka Cricket for their outstanding support and assistance. We look forward to returning to Sri Lanka in the very near future to fulfil this important Test series.”

With postponements and cancellations occurring across other sports worldwide, England’s players were understood to have become unsettled by the tour’s apparent continuation even though only a handful of Covid-19 cases have been reported in Sri Lanka. The squad was operating in a bubble with strict hygiene guidelines but the prospect of a potential quarantine situation meant the ECB, after consultation with the Professional Cricketers’ Association, had little choice.

Tour operators are trying to recoup as much cash as possible for supporters who have opted against making the trip but with money already passed on to hotels and airlines, many will still be left heavily out of pocket unless they have event-specific insurance. Sri Lanka is not deemed off limits for travel according to the latest Foreign Office advice and so regular policies may not pay out.

As part of the World Test Championship the two-match series must be completed before the Lord’s final in 2021, but next winter’s schedule is packed. Sri Lanka have stated the postponement was at England’s request and could have a claim to all 120 points should a new window not be found.

How best to reschedule is not straightforward. England travel to India and Australia before Christmas – the latter for the Twenty20 World Cup that ends in mid-November – and then return to India for five Test matches in January and February before a white-ball trip to South Africa in March.

Given Sri Lanka have series against South Africa, New Zealand and West Indies running from the start of 2021 the only feasible gaps are December, after the T20 World Cup, or a fortnight in January. Either way it would place an immense strain on England’s all-format players.

Greater issues will present themselves in the home summer, however, with the first of three Tests against West Indies being staged at the Oval on 4 June and thus falling during the period when the government expects coronavirus to have peaked in the UK. Australia and Pakistan are also due to tour England this summer, as are India and South Africa’s women’s teams – there may be reluctance to do so among the tourists – while the start of the county season in April, and the inaugural edition of The Hundred in July and August, could also come under threat.

Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, said: “We are building contingency plans across a number of possible eventualities. Our main priorities are to ensure we scope out the landscape for financial, logistical and scheduling implications.

”It is difficult for us to be sure of what outcomes the game might be expected to deal with. Therefore, we will continue to plan for a season that proceeds as normal, but in parallel prepare for a range of different scenarios. These could include the possibility of playing matches behind closed doors, or potentially postponing or cancelling elements of the season.”

These scenarios would challenge the ECB’s finances despite its new £1.1bn broadcasting deal having kicked in, with the board’s previously buoyant cash reserves having decreased significantly because of a raft of county grants and the setup costs for The Hundred.

England’s tour postponement on Friday followed shortly after MCC confirmed the cancellation of this year’s Champion County fixture – due to be played against Essex in Sri Lanka from 24 March – and the Indian Premier League pushing its start date back from 29 March to 15 April.

India also postponed its final two men’s ODIs against South Africa, having originally made them closed-stadium affairs, while the Pakistan Super League has crunched down its knockout stages and made remaining fixtures crowd-free.

This continuation of the PSL comes despite nine overseas players – including the English cricketers Jason Roy, Alex Hales, James Vince, Tom Banton, Liam Dawson, Liam Livingstone, Lewis Gregory and Tymal Mills – opting to leave the tournament early.

Meanwhile, Gloucestershire became the latest county to cancel their pre-season tour, having been due to fly out to La Manga next Wednesday. Warwickshire are at the Spanish complex already but will now return a week early.