West Indies captain Jason Holder has admitted that the proposed tour of England in July will represent an possibility for players “to in reality make some money”, but insisted that no player would be forced to commute whether they didn’t feel secure doing so.
While boards have admitted all through the crisis that they wish to return to play as soon as conceivable in an effort to bring in TV revenue, few players have spoken approximately their own wish to earn. West Indies players have felt the financial affect of the Covid-19 shutdown harder than most, with match fees from games earlier this calendar year delayed and CEO Johnny Grave accepting that Cricket West Indies “is facing a hard time financially”.
Speaking on the BBC’s ‘Tuffers and Vaughan’ show, Holder said the tour would allow for “everybody getting back into the workforce”.
“It’s no different from a frontline worker going into a hospital each day,” Holder said. “It is the same risk that they are… they are putting their lives at risk and they have got still got to make money. The longer we stay off the field, the longer it takes for us to in reality make some money.”
England’s players will return to individual training on Wednesday with the hope of starting a three-Test series against West Indies on July 8. West Indies have been in contact with an enlarged training squad of around 30 players to let them realize more details approximately the tour, but Holder echoed the sentiments of Ricky Skerritt, CWI’s president, in saying that no player would be forced to commute to the United Kingdom whether they didn’t feel secure.
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“Each and every player must be comfortable in making the step,” he said. “Certainly from my perspective, I wouldn’t be forcing anybody to go anywhere. It’s been made lucid that whether we are to jump on a plane to go over to England and play, then it will have to be secure. We’re been provided assurance from CWI that we wouldn’t go over to England unless they deem it secure to go over and play.
“It is not only from a monetary standpoint. The first precedence is everybody’s safety. We’ve been assured that the only way that the tour will perhaps go ahead is whether everyone could be comfortable with the measures that the ECB are putting in place to roll the cricket out.
“But there’s obviously been numerous ongoing discussions, and for us as players to commit to going, we’ve just got to be assured of our safety.”
Holder also admitted that after a packed international schedule, the break had come at a good time for him personally as an possibility to “recoup” before playing again.
“It has been a welcome break,” he said. “It’s more or less unlucky the type of break it has been, but for us it’s an possibility to mirror, chill out, and recoup before we in reality renew playing cricket again.
“No doubt, confidently in the not too distant future we can have the possibility to receive out on the cricket field, but each and every cricketer around the globe who has been on the circuit perhaps for the final four, five years, hectically playing, would welcome this break.”