SA vs ENG: Concerns over bio bubble raised anxiety among players, says Ashley Giles

Anxieties and insecurity about the level of safety under the bio-secure bubble among players led to the abandonment of the ODI series between South Africa and England, the Managing Director of England Men’s Cricket, Ashley Giles has said. 

He also added that the facilities and bio-secure environment provided to them in South Africa were not up to the standards they expected. There were as many as two ‘unconfirmed’ cases of COVID-19 in the tourists’ camp. 

Talks about the integrity of the bubble started doing the rounds after five members within the bubble were reported to be COVID positive. First, it was a member in the South African camp who was reported to have tested positive. This led to the postponement of the first ODI at Newlands, followed by the emergence of two positive cases among hotel staff in subsequent rounds of testing which forced both the concerned boards to delay the second ODI as well. Another round of testing was prescribed and, after the reports of two England squad members were found to be positive, the second match too was postponed.

The ECB and team management on the tour had sought ‘independent ratification’ of the unconfirmed cases in their camp before making up their mind on the modalities of the remaining two fixtures of a three-match series.

The tourists still believe that the result of ratification will give a false positive result of the cases reported in their camp. But the growing anxiety among the squad members would not have left them in a proper mental state to play two back-to-back matches on December 08 and 09, before taking the flight home on December 10. Hence, the tour was abandoned.

"It came down to well-being. I don't think it's the last three weeks, it could be the last eight or nine months. These guys have been living in bubbles for long periods and their mental health is the absolute priority for us. Clearly, this was a situation for all of us in the bubble. Not just players but management and the South African players and management. We felt trying to squeeze two games into two days here, when this had been going on in the background, was going to be particularly difficult and we're better off calling it (off) and looking to re-arrange these fixtures at a better time," Giles said on the level of problems the squad faced before the decision to call off the series was taken.

The abandoned series against England will hurt the image of Cricket South Africa which is already battling many issues ranging from systemic racism and administrative failure to interventions from the federal government.

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