Cricket or the whole sporting world, in general, has been severely impacted by COVID-19, but Big Bash League (BBL) is one of the tournaments which have seen an extraordinary number of cases in the last few weeks and today the situation with Sydney Sixers reached an extent where the assistant coach of the team had to be a part of the playing XI.
When Sydney Sixers turned up for their game against Adelaide Strikers today, they didn’t have a wicketkeeper in their ranks as Joshua Philippe, their wicketkeeper and one of their premier batsmen had been tested positive just on the eve of the game and it was literally impossible for them to arrange another wicketkeeper in the time that they had in hand before the game.
The Sixers eventually had to ask Jay Lenton, who is a part of the coaching staff of the side, to keep wickets because of the unavailability of the players. It’s probably for the first time in a high-profile league that such a scenario unfolded where a team just didn’t have enough players to take the ground and had to get one of the coaches into the playing XI.
BBL is a tournament that is not played in a very strict bio bubble and the spectators are continuously being allowed for the games even though there has been a COVID-19 breakout in almost all the teams. The teams have been allowed to sign players from the domestic circuit of Australia temporarily if too many from the original squad are isolated.
Quite a few BBL teams have had to play with depleted squads
There have been several occasions this season where the BBL teams have played with depleted squads and it has affected the positions of the teams in the table as well, as not every team has been able to achieve desirable results with depleted squads, but the tournament has still gone on, which is understandable because of the broadcasting commitments.
31-year-old Jay Lenton, who is a part of Sydney Sixers' coaching staff, has taken the gloves for today's Challenger match 😮#BBL11
Advertisement— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) January 26, 2022
The tournaments all around the world have been going through COVID cases now, particularly those tournaments where strict bio bubbles haven’t been implemented because the organisers know in case of loose bubbles, the cases are going to be there at some point of time and the tournament has to go through it.
Even the Ashes series in Australia recently went through several COVID cases, with England’s head coach Chris Silverwood testing positive and having to isolate.
