'I might never play cricket again' - says Surrey all-rounder Gareth Batty amid Coronavirus fears

The coronavirus pandemic has given some scares to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The English cricket summer generally begins in May and goes till the end of September. During this time, 18 counties play in three major competitions, the English first-class championship, the 50-overs tournament and the T20 Blast. Interestingly, ECB will also launch the Hundred this season. But, the scare of COVID-19 has started raising questions if the county season will be held or not.

If the season gets cancelled, it will be a setback for young cricketers across the United Kingdom. But, for Gareth Batty, such a decision can be very disheartening. Batty, who is 42 years old, is supposed to feature in his last county season this year. The bowling all-rounder has been an absolute legend of county cricket during his 23-year long career. At the end of last summer, Batty had signed a 12-month contract with Surrey and the deal would end in September.

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The off-spinner in a recent interview expressed that he feels that he might have already played his last first-class game. “I might never play cricket again. I’ll be brutally honest, I’m nowhere, I don t know what to do,” Gareth Batty, who last played international cricket in 2016, said while speaking to talkSport2.

Speaking on the cancellation of matches across the globe and how it has affected him, Batty said, “Most of the time, a player can go out and do something about it. They can go out and get fitter or practice more. Your career is in your hands. At this moment in time, it is not. It has been taken away. And rightly so.”

Gareth Batty has played 261 first-class matches in his career along with 271 List A and 171 T20s games. He has picked up 1,074 wickets and scored 10,396 runs across all the three formats. As far as international cricket is concerned, the Surrey player has nine Tests, 10 ODI and one T20I. His last international appearance was against India in Mohali during the Test series in 2016.

“Its a very difficult time, obviously, for everybody out there, but certainly for professional sportspeople. We re in a very unique position your body is your currency, and if you can’t do the right things and put the good things into it, you feel like you re just missing a trick,” Batty spoke about how such a break can affect a player.

The experienced all-rounder though understands how necessary the steps are which have been taken by ECB. He added, “We’ve all got to pull together. The ECB will be under huge strain. Everybody within the cricket community, we’ve got to fund-raise and make sure that we look after our game. It means rolling sleeves up and painting the sight screens.”