“It was Nice to Be Out There” Chris Woakes Resumes Training

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) started the individual training of 18 bowlers this week amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Chris Woakes is one among the selected bunch of players and is really glad to be back on the field. The pacer is happy to ‘have some form of normality’ in life. 

It is almost after 2 months that the players are out of their homes. The world was under complete lockdown from the past many days owing to the coronavirus outbreak. But now with some guidelines and precautions the cricket authorities are trying to get the game back. 

Talking about his training session in a conference call on Friday (May 22), Woakes revealed, “It’s what we know, it’s what we do. Obviously it’s the job, so it was nice to have some form of normality going back to some training.”

There were many changes in the working atmosphere. Like Chris just had a physiotherapist on the ground and he wasn’t allowed to use changing rooms and had to work with only a set of balls. To this Chris revealed, “It looks a lot different to what we’re used to. But at the same time, with what’s everyone’s been through. It was nice to be out there and do a bit of training and get the ball back in hand.”

He added, “Obviously not having bowled for two months, there are a few things that are sore. The sides definitely woke up this morning knowing I’d had a bowl yesterday but it was nice to be back out there,” 

The England Cricket shared a video of the cricketer while he was sweating it out in the field. Woakes had an hour-long training stint as part of the warm-up and went through the delivery stride and other drills at his home ground in Edgbaston.  

Take a look at the training video of Chris Woakes

It’s going to look different: Chris Woakes

The COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in a major financial loss for most of the cricket boards across the globe. ECB is also facing a financial crisis. It is hoping to host Pakistan, Australia, West Indies, and Ireland in summer to cope up with the loss. According to Tom Harrison, the Chief Executive of ECB, the board is expected to have a loss of whopping £380 million ($463 million) in case the tours get canceled. 

When asked about the same, Woakes replied, “First and foremost we just hope there’s going to be some form of cricket. Obviously, it’s going to look different, with it being behind closed doors.” He further added, “We’ve all seen the projections, that the ECB and the game, in general, could be in a bit of trouble if we weren’t to play any cricket this summer. I think for everyone it’ll be a bit of a boost, and obviously it’ll be a boost for the game.”