Following the confirmation by the Prime Minister on 23 November that England will return to a three-tier system of regional restrictions once the current lockdown period ends at 00:01 on 2 December, ECB is working with DCMS and Sport England on the full details of what this means for cricket.
We can confirm that:
- Organised activities for U18s in groups of up to 15 and disabled people will be able to continue indoors across all tiers;
- In Tier 1 areas, organised adult cricket indoors can take place subject to the rule of six in a COVID secure environment – as per the arrangements in place for Tier 1 prior to the latest lockdown;
- In Tier 2 areas, organised adult sport can only take place indoors if there is no interaction between people from different households. For cricket activity this means (subject to a satisfactory risk assessment of the individual facilities) that a net session is allowed between individuals from a different household, but only on a 1:1 basis. If individuals from different households want to net together indoors, the maximum number of people permitted to take part in an indoor net session is three – two taking part in the session and one coach, who must remain socially distanced.
- In all cases, the COVID risk assessment of the individual facilities must consider whether indoor nets should be used on an ‘every other’ basis.
- Coach education can continue under all tiers in line with the work exemption where this cannot be done from home;
- In Tier 3 areas, adult 1:1 coaching is restricted to one player and one coach.
- Elite cricket activity can continue to take place across all tiers;
- Outdoor cricket activity will be able to resume across all tiers.
On Thursday 26 November, the Government published the full list of local restrictions by area in England. You can find out which area applies to you here.
As a naturally socially distanced sport, ECB does not consider that playing cricket contributes to the spread of COVID-19 in any significant way, and it continues to play a key role in helping to safely maintain the health and wellbeing of the nation under coronavirus restrictions. We thank everyone from the cricket community who has contacted their local MP to highlight this point - we know that this has had an impact on the decision to allow outdoor cricket activity, indoor U18 and disability cricket to fully resume post-lockdown.
We are awaiting further clarification around travel restrictions for each tier and for what purpose. As soon as we have full confirmed guidance we will publish an updated summary for all cricket activity by tier that can take place from Wednesday 2 December onwards in England. We are also in the final stages of confirming indoor guidance for cricket activity in Wales and are hoping to publish this as soon as possible.