England women cricketers Lauren Winfield and Amy Jones are both stuck in Australia with worldwide travel restrictions in force due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Winfield was in Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef, celebrating her honeymoon after her marriage to long-term partner Courtney Hill. Jones was in Perth. Both have found themselves stranded in Australia, and are currently unable to return home with borders closing.
“I was supposed to fly home on Friday,” Winfield told The Independent. “But my flight has been cancelled. Everything through Dubai, Emirates, has been cancelled for the next two weeks. They are reassessing in two weeks’ time. But rumours are it could be up to two to three months. At the minute I have a flight on the 8th (April), but I feel like that’s just going to come around and it’ll get pushed back and back.”
Winfield said, meanwhile, that she and Jones had made a pact not to leave the other behind when they finally get to travel back home.
The report also said the ECB had sent in a ‘care package’ with dumbbells, kettlebells and protein bars along with a program to follow. But Winfield was still uncertain about the impact of having no cricket for an extended time, pointing out that while The Hundred was the obvious focus given it’s money-spinning potential, the England team needed to play ODI cricket too.
“It’s really nerve-wracking times. Essentially you could be wasting a year of your career,” Winfield said. “The talks are obviously about The Hundred which is the money-maker, but from an England point of view, we need to play 50-over cricket. And for me I’ve been in and out of teams and not faced too many balls over the last few competitive months. We’re kind of all just floating along and it’s certainly not easy.”