London: England captain Heather Knight has admitted to “concerns and anxieties” among the touring party in Australia after news of a support staff member testing positive for Covid-19, the latest disruption to their preparations ahead of the Women’s Ashes.
The unidentified individual received a positive result in the second round of PCR tests conducted since England’s arrival in Australia.
They are now in isolation and will remain in Canberra while the group moves on to Adelaide ahead of the T20I leg of the Ashes, which starts on Thursday. No other positives have been reported, with a further round of testing to be carried out before the team flies by charter on Monday.
England have been in Australia for less than a week and were already having to rejig their plans after the schedule was changed in the run-up to departure – the T20Is were brought forward, ahead of the one-off Test, due to quarantine requirements for the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.
They then saw their first outdoor training session affected by torrential rain, with Knight describing England’s build-up so far as “pretty average”. The discovery of a positive Covid case in the camp has added to the restrictions England are under – although two scheduled intra-squad warm-up games in Canberra this weekend will still take place – amid an atmosphere of extreme caution before the World Cup.
“We were prepared for this,” Knight said, “I think it would be pretty naive to think we wouldn’t be affected by it [Covid-19] but there’s concern and anxieties from the group. We’ve had to live under pretty strict protocols since we’ve arrived, we’ve only been allowed to socialise outdoors for exactly this reason, to try and limit the spread.
“It’s going to be a nervous 24-48 hours, but the PCR tests we’ve done already have all come back negative. Fingers crossed. It was always going to be affected by Covid. We’ve had to ‘safe live’ for two weeks in the UK, from Christmas pretty much, just in order to get out here. It’s been a colossal effort.”
