Boris Johnson has made a sudden reversal of his decision on the return of recreational cricket, announcing the sport is set to be back from next weekend having said only hours earlier on Friday that cricket was not safe due to “the teas, the changing rooms and so on”.
A month ago the prime minister described cricket balls as being “a vector of disease”, but on Friday morning he veered from those comments when asked why recreational tennis had been allowed to resume in recent weeks, but not cricket, instead blaming the team environment.
“It’s a valid point,” Mr Johnson told LBC Radio. ”There are reasons. These debates have gone round and round. There are various other considerations. The longer answer, which I think probably [government chief scientific advisor] Chris Whitty would give, if he were here, about cricket [is that] the risk is not so much the ball, although that may be a factor.
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“It’s the teas, it’s the changing rooms and so on and so forth. There are other factors involved that generate proximity, which you might not get in a game of tennis.”
Yet by the afternoon, the government had made a major U-turn.
“I sought scientific advice and medical opinions,” Mr Johnson said. ”Having been stumped on radio this morning, the third umpire has been invoked. What I can say is that we do want to work as fast as possible to get cricket back, and we will be publishing guidelines in the next few days so that cricket can resume in time for next weekend.”
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had initially been critical of Mr Johnson’s radio comments, describing concerns over “the teas” as ”totally bizarre” and “ill-informed”. But the sport’s governing body welcomed the change of tack.
An ECB statement read: “We are delighted that the UK Government have given their permission for recreational cricket to return from next weekend. We will shortly be publishing our approved guidelines to help clubs and players prepare for cricket’s return.”
