ECB RETURN TO CRICKET PLAN FOR STEP 4 IN WALES
JULY 2020
Adaptations for all organised outdoor cricket activity, applicable to players, spectators, volunteers, clubs, coaches & officials in Wales, in Step 4 of the ECB Return to Cricket Roadmap
This plan provides measures that should be taken by players, clubs, officials, volunteers, coaches and spectators before, during and after all outdoor cricket activity as well as specific advice relating to clubs, coaches, match-play and children’s activity in Wales. It should be read in conjunction with the latest Welsh Government regulations and advice and participants should be aware of the additional risk associated with gathering in groups which are not part of their extended household, if they have chosen to form one.
For all activity, Welsh Government social distancing guidance should be adhered to at all times (including throughout warm-ups) with the sole exception of close fielders who may, during competitive play, be placed momentarily between 1-2m of another player.
This document refers to current Welsh Government guidance for Wales and it should be noted guidance could change in response to the current COVID-19 Alert Level, community prevalence of COVID-19 and/or to reflect additional or updated Welsh Government advice. Detailed information on the phased return of sport, recreation and leisure in Wales can be found here.
Prior to all cricket activity
• All participants (players, coaches, officials, volunteers and spectators) should check for symptoms of COVID-19. In line with current Public Health Wales advice, if an individual is symptomatic and/or living in a household with a possible COVID-19 infection they should remain at home and follow Welsh Government guidance. In addition, any participants who have been asked to isolate by NHS Test, Trace, Protect because they are a contact of a known COVID-19 case, must not exercise outside their home or garden and must not exercise with others.
• Participants should follow Welsh Government guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19 (found here) if it applies to them.
• Participants should follow Welsh Government advice on protecting themselves and others outside the sports setting to reduce the risk to their fellow participants when they do attend a cricket club or venue.
• Personal hygiene measures should be carried out at home before and after cricket activity.
• Participants should bring their own hand sanitiser where possible and maintain strict and frequent hand hygiene measures at all times.
• Participants should follow Welsh Government guidance on best practice for travel, including minimising the use of public transport and limiting car sharing (found here).
• Time spent congregating at the venue prior to activity should be strictly limited and social distancing should be observed at ALL times, including during any warm-up activity or preparing of the facility, e.g. removing covers, moving sightscreens, putting the boundary rope/flags in place.
• Use of the clubhouse and toilets should adhere to the latest Welsh Government advice. Currently, there should be no use of changing rooms in Wales and players should arrive changed and leave in playing kit. The only exceptions to this will be for safety or safeguarding measures e.g. supporting disabled participants or for a child requiring a change of clothing.
• Club representatives should ensure that the facility is compliant with current Welsh Government legislation and guidance specifically related to COVID-19.
• A COVID-19 Plan and risk assessment should have been completed and risk mitigation measures put in place and monitored PRIOR to any activity taking place.
• In the case of third party-owned or managed facilities, adherence to these guidelines should be agreed collaboratively between club and facility. Facilities
• operators should refer to Welsh Government guidance for sports, clubs and facilities.
• Club representatives should make all participants aware of expected social distancing and hygiene behaviour during play and whilst on site.
• Club representatives should make all participants aware of the increase in transmission risk associated with partaking in even socially distanced group activity and should ensure that all participants are clear that they are opting in to participate in cricket activity and agree to adhere to the Code of Behaviour.
• For Welsh government advice on COVID-19, see here.
During all cricket activity
• Cricket activity must take place outdoors only.
• 11-a-side cricket can return as long as groups are limited to a maximum of 30 participants, including coaches and officials.
• Participants should enter the site and prepare their personal equipment whilst maintaining social distancing.
• Where possible players should limit sharing of equipment, particularly that used around the head and face e.g. helmets. If they do, they must practise strict hand hygiene before and after use and the equipment must be cleaned before use by another person. More information is available here.
• No sweat or saliva is to be applied to the ball at any time.
• All participants should wash their hands prior to the start of the activity.
• Hand sanitiser should be used at all breaks in activity and prior to consuming any food or drinks.
• Players should refrain from spitting or rinsing out their mouths.
• In line with current Welsh Government guidance, clubs should not prepare food for participants. Individuals should bring their own food and drink for ‘teas’ or practice. Water bottles or other refreshment containers should not be shared.
After all cricket activity
• All participants should sanitise their hands after the completion of activity.
• Social gathering after the activity will only be allowed in line with current Welsh Government guidelines on hospitality, and social distancing must be maintained at all times.
• Participants should exit whilst maintaining social distancing.
• One club representative/volunteer should be responsible for collecting and disinfecting any shared equipment.
• Regular cleaning of equipment and the facility should take place, particularly between one group finishing, and the next group starting.
• Individuals should be responsible for laundering their own playing shirts and other garments.
• Clubs should encourage all participants to report any infection of their household to the Welsh Government’s Test, Trace, Protect system following use of the facility to limit the spread of the virus: https://gov.wales/test-trace-protect
Additional Advice for Clubs & Club Representatives
Preparation of the cricket venue
• Prior to reaching Step 4 of the ECB Roadmap, club representatives should ensure that their facility is compliant with current Welsh Government legislation including legislation and guidance related to COVID-19. In accordance with the ECB’s guidance on Getting your Clubhouse and Ground Ready for Step 4 here. A risk assessment should have been completed and risk mitigation measures put in place and monitored.
• On any day of the activity, club representatives and volunteers should ensure that all COVID-19 measures are in place according to the club operating and safety plans, whilst maintaining social distancing – developing your own ‘opening up checklist’ is helpful for this. This should include:
o Set-up of public health operating procedures and access signage (available from ECB Resource Hub)
o Set-up of cricket facility including all ground safety requirements.
• Venues should have entry and exit and parking arrangements which ensures that social distancing can be maintained and that allow for 2m physical distancing rules to be implemented at all times.
• Venues should implement traffic flow/one-way systems where possible and appropriate.
• Venues should outline physically distanced areas for teams, officials and spectators.
• Venues should ensure that all accessible provision within the site and the facility are available.
• The duty of care which the club already owed remains and therefore other matters such as First Aid must continue to be provided. First Aid equipment (including AEDs where available) and suitable PPE for First Aid must be made available. Advice on First Aid during the COVID pandemic is available from St John Ambulance Wales.
• Clubs should make hand washing facilities and hand sanitiser available for all site users.
• Clubs and groundskeepers should mark running lines on the square in line with the popping crease at 2m+ intervals on either side of the pitch.
Clubs should support Welsh Government’s Test, Trace, Protect efforts by keeping a temporary record of all participants in any cricket activity for 21 days and support NHS Wales’ requests for data if needed. For the latest information in relation to Test, Trace, Protect please click here.
Many clubs already have systems for recording their participants, however, if you do not already do this, please ensure that you do so in line with data protection legislation.
Additional advice for socially distanced match-play
• Players must practise social distancing at all times, with the sole exception of close fielders who may, in competitive circumstances, be placed momentarily between 1-2m of another player.
• If this is the case, especially in the case of wicket-keepers, fielders must be no closer than 1m from another participant at any time and they must walk away from their position and any other participants between deliveries in order to minimise physical proximity.
• No sweat or saliva to be applied to the ball at any time.
• A ‘hygiene break’ should take place every six overs or every 20 minutes, whichever is sooner, in which the ball is cleaned with an anti-microbial wipe and all participants’ hands are cleaned using a suitable sanitiser. This routine should also be followed at the start of any drinks break or the close of an innings. The responsibility for sanitising the ball during the match will lie with the fielding captain, not the umpire.
• Batters to sanitise their bat when leaving the field of play and Wicket Keepers should sanitise their gloves.
• Bowlers should not hand any personal items to the umpire. Bowlers should place these items at the boundary themselves.
• Batters are to run in distinct running lines to ensure they are not within 2m of the bowler or other batter. Lines to be marked on the square on either side of the wicket.
• If two scorers are required, social distancing must be maintained with only one official inside the scorers’ box and no players to be allowed in the scorers’ box. The scorers’ box should be well ventilated.
• Communal scorebooks passed from one player to another should be avoided.
• Social distancing must always be maintained including during post-wicket celebrations, drinks breaks and tactical discussions.
• Minimise sharing of the ball in a match by limiting contact as the ball makes its way back to the bowler e.g. ball goes straight from wicketkeeper to bowler instead of around surrounding fielders.
• Spectators should be limited at this stage to only those persons who need to attend e.g. parents or guardians of children who require their attendance for health or safeguarding reasons. All spectators must remain socially and physically distanced from each other and the area of play at all times, including accessing and leaving the venue, use of any facilities and whilst watching game play. They should also refrain from all contact with the ball e.g. returning it to the field of play.
• Anyone on the area of play, or closer to it than social distancing rules would permit, will count towards the total number people considered to the gathered for the organised outdoor cricket activity, where a limit of no more than 30 persons applies.
• Umpires should refrain from any contact with the ball, it can be returned to the base of the stumps at hygiene-, drinks- or other breaks in play and at the fall of wickets.
• Umpires should be responsible for the stumps closest to them and should be the only person replacing the bails if dislodged.
• Use of the clubhouse, changing rooms and toilets should adhere to the latest Welsh Government advice. Currently, there should be no use of changing rooms.
• Detailed guidance relating to officials has been released by the Association of Cricket Officials (ACO), including appropriate sanctions for participants not adhering to COVID-19 guidance, including but not limited to, player ejection and match cancellation.
Advice for Special Occurrences e.g. rain
• In the event of rain, participants should return to their own vehicle to maintain social distancing if there is insufficient outdoor cover from the rain to maintain social distancing.
• Application of covers in the event of wet weather should be done whilst maintaining social distancing.
Additional Advice for Children’s Activity
• For junior activity and matches, maximum groups sizes of 30 should include one qualified coach per group and additional adult(s) required to meet cricket safeguarding ratios (1:8 aged 8 and under, 1:10 aged 9 and over). All groups are to be self-sufficient e.g. a coach cannot oversee two separate groups.
• Each group must have sufficient adults to meet cricket safeguarding ratios as above.
• A lead coach is permitted to move between smaller groups provided each group independently has sufficient adults to meet cricket safeguarding ratios.
• Parents should drop off and collect participants via a protocol that maintains social distancing.
• Parents should remain socially distanced on the side-line.
• For younger age groups, plastic equipment should be used and should be disinfected at the end of each session.
• Example junior cricket activity can be found at icoachcricket.ecb.co.uk.
• For ECB National Participation Programmes, e.g. All Stars Cricket, the ECB will provide recommended activities to minimise contact between participants and minimise the sharing of equipment, whilst still creating a fun and creative learning environment.
• It is recommended that junior participants take part in solo activity in practice, before moving to pairs activity that maintains social distancing and allows participants to operate in the same pair for the length of the session.
Additional advice for training & other activity
• The Guidance for Wales relating to outdoor practice and nets, released on 19 June 2020 is still applicable, with the exception of maximum group sizes rising from two households to up to 30 people, in line with the new regulations announced on 10 July, which take effect in Wales on 13 July.
• Where participants cannot provide their own individual equipment, we recommend numbering cricket equipment such as balls, so that each participant has a specific numbered ball and/or cone and uses that for the entirety of the session to minimise sharing of equipment where possible.
• If bowling machines are used, they should be cleaned thoroughly between uses with dry cleaning products and all balls should be cleaned with disinfectant. This is the responsibility of the bowling machine operator.
Additional Advice for Coaches
These measures cannot cover every eventuality and coaches must conduct a risk assessment, ensuring appropriate measures are put in place to keep participants and coaches safe.
Playing and coaching cricket in itself carries some degree of risk and whilst being mindful of the guidelines regarding COVID-19, coaches should not lose sight of the normal safety rules or safeguarding standards relating to playing and coaching cricket which continue to apply and must be complied with (DBS, safeguarding, First Aid etc).
• Coaches should make themselves aware of and abide by, all guidelines set out by the Welsh Government, the venue and the ECB regarding use of facilities.
• It is the coach's responsibility to ensure that they coach players in a safe environment and follow relevant guidelines.
• Coach should explain the safety guidelines of what is expected pre-, during and post- session, including what the player is expected to do to maintain complianc