Women’s Ashes: Heather Knight says Covid-19 has made England build-up ‘comical’ and ‘pretty average’ | Cricket News

Member of England Women’s support staff tests positive for Covid-19 ahead of Ashes series; England skipper Heather Kinight says tourists would have been “naïve” to think coronavirus would not impact on them; Knight laments “comical” build-up as England look to regain the Ashes

Heather Knight says Covid-19 has made England Women’s Ashes build-up “comical” and “pretty average” – but believes her side can “make the most of a bad situation” as they look to win the series for the first time since 2014.

England announced on Friday that a member of backroom staff had tested positive for coronavirus and will remain in Canberra when the squad travels to Adelaide on Monday ahead of the first T20 international against Australia next Thursday.

The touring party will undertake another round of PCR tests before travelling to South Australia early next week.

As soon as we realised a Covid booster is something we would have to do to protect ourselves and other people we wanted to do it. Pretty much straightway the squad booked themselves in. Our doctor says he has never seen a team so committed, so I am proud of the girls.

Heather Knight

Knight’s side are facing stringent protocols in order to ensure the multi-format series goes ahead without a hitch – they are currently not permitted to go out for dinner, even outdoors.

They also lived with restrictions prior to flying out to Australia for the three T20s, standalone Test match and three one-day internationals.

Knight said: “The lead-up has been pretty average. Two weeks before we left England we could only train as individuals and with our households.

“We’ve had mums feeding bowling machines, boyfriends and girlfriends slinging. Dads batting and any family member or households supporting our training.

“As you can imagine, it’s been pretty comical and also not ideal preparation for a series of this magnitude but it’s been completely unavoidable.”

It’s very challenging to tour with Covid around at the moment and the restrictions that we’ve been under have changed as well so just being adaptable to that as a player has been quite tricky. As soon as you’ve got your head around something, something else changes.

Heather Knight

Knight: There are anxieties in the camp

On the positive Covid case in the camp, Knight added: “I guess we’re prepared for this, I think it was pretty naive to think we wouldn’t be affected by it.

“There’s obviously concern and anxieties from the group, but we’ve had to live under pretty strict protocols once we’ve arrived. We’ve only been allowed to socialise outdoors to limit the spread.

“It’s going to be a nervous 24 and 48 hours but the PCR tests we’ve all done already have all come back negative so fingers crossed.

“It was always going to be affected by Covid. We’ve already been affected by Covid in our preparations, we’ve had to safe-live for two weeks in the UK from Christmas pretty much just to get out here.

“It’s been a colossal effort from the players, from the staff and from all the households. It’s been very challenging just to get out here.”

England Women begin their Ashes series against Australia next Thursday with the first of three T20 internationals

England lost the 2015 and 2019 Ashes series on home soil, while they drew 8-8 on their previous trip to Australia in late 2017.

This year’s series has been shifted forward a week from its initial start date of January 27 in order for England and Australia to complete a mandatory 10-day quarantine in New Zealand ahead of the 50-over World Cup from March 4.

Knight says it has been tough for her team to focus on the cricket but believes they can now throw “caution to the wind” when they face Meg Lanning’s side.

The 31-year-old added: “Finding ways to get ourselves physically and mentally prepared has been a bit harder. Throw Covid in there and shifting goalposts from the World Cup, it has been quite hard to focus on the cricket.

“We haven’t had the best preparation but we need to make the most of it and bring the team together, more metaphorically than literally because of Covid!

“Of course there’s a frustration there, but it’s the times that we’re living in at the moment. I’m confident we will make the most of a bad situation.

“Maybe it will take the pressure off – we’ve just got to find a way to free up, go out there and just throw caution to the wind a little bit and see what we can do.

“Mentally it’s going to be tough but we’re doing everything we can to try and get ourselves prepped and be ready for that first game.”

Sophia Dunkley is England’s first Black female Test cricketer

‘Women’s game not as diverse as it should be’

A parliamentary report released on Friday in the wake of Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of institutional racism against former club Yorkshire has recommended that cricket in the country should have its government funding limited if there is not “demonstrable progress” in the eradication of “deep-seated racism”.

Knight hopes the “uncomfortable” and “unpleasant” revelations by Rafiq among others can change cricket for good and says the women’s game still needs to make strides in terms of diversity with it taking until 2021 for England to field their first Black female Test cricketer in Sophia Dunkley.

Knight said after the release of the parliamentary committee report: “It is going to improve things the more welcoming cricket can be in terms of race, gender, whatever it might be.

“All the stuff that has gone on has been pretty uncomfortable and unpleasant but hopefully it will lead to something good, which we all want to see.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

After a DCMS report found there was ‘deep-seated’ racism within the sport, Azeem Rafiq says he is encouraged that the committee has taken the issue seriously.

“The women’s game is not as diverse as it should be. The fact Sophia was the first Black woman play a Test match for England in 2021, it should have happened a lot earlier.

“There are a lot of reasons for that and why it has been hard for certain players to find routes to play for England. Because women’s cricket has faced barriers of its own, you’ve got that on top of other things.

“We want the sport to change and we as players want to be part of that. Sophia has handled things so brilliantly – she gets asked a lot about it and takes it in her stride and is a great role model.

“She deals with that pressure of being the first in something amazingly well. Our job is to support her in that and ensure that pressure doesn’t become too much and that she can be herself and perform.”