In light of what appears to be the recent relaxing of "Lockdown" surrounding Covid-19, including the playing of certain sports, on Friday 15 May the ECB made the following statement:
"ECB maintains the position that all recreational cricket remains suspended until further notice, with the sole exception of the use of outdoor cricket facilities (nets and pitches) for the purpose of undertaking exercise as set out in our detailed guidance document."
Any club who is contemplating allowing the use of its facilities should carefully read the two communications sent out by the ECB, which all of our Clubs were emailed copies of on Friday. These are also reproduced below. Included in these communications are a set of Guidelines entitled a "Return to activity in a cricket club setting". These Guidelines are extensive and very detailed, and we would urge clubs to fully consider their ability to fulfil all aspects of the necessary requirements before considering the use of their "outdoor cricket facilities".
There are many important links in the two documents from the ECB, but for your information attached is an important and necessary "Daily Club Opening Checklist", along with the "Return to activity in a cricket club setting" ECB Guidelines.
This is obviously a quickly changing landscape, but in view of the many restrictions included in these documents, we feel that clubs would find it extremely difficult to be able to conform to all the necessary criteria to enable any current use of their outdoor facilities, and would recommend that unless clubs feel that they can fulfil all the necessary criteria they should put any potential opening on hold for the present time.
Further Reading
ECB guidelines for the use of outdoor cricket facilities in lockdown
Covid-19 Update for Leagues & Clubs
ECB Return To Activies Guidelines (PDF)
Outdoor Facilities Checklist (PDF)
