'I won’t pretend I found it easy' - Jack Leach opens up on his grueling time in the bio-secure bubbles

The ongoing pandemic has hurled a lot of challenges for everyone around the globe. Along with the many things that came to standstill due to Covid, sports also froze. The ardent cricket fans were missing the live-action and all that it brought to the table every single time.

When cricket resumed after a long gap, it didn’t just bring entertainment but also a lot of hope into the lives of many. Test cricket is considered as the ultimate format of the game and when it knocked the doors after staying away for a while the fans were all frenzy. Nearly after 4 months, cricket made its comeback with England taking on West Indies.

Resuming the game whilst these challenging conditions have been extremely grueling for the players too. Being in the biosecure bubble for a considerable amount of time demanded a lot of patience for them and certainly wasn’t a facile task. Recounting the experience of being in the bio-secure bubble England’s left-arm spinner Jack Leach asserted that though the ECB supported the players well, it was not easy to go live with all the restrictions.

“I entered England’s biosecure bubble at the Rose Bowl on June 23, a fortnight before the First Test against West Indies, and left on August 25, the last evening of the Third against Pakistan. Take off the four days we were allowed home between series, and I spent 60 nights in the Test team’s version of lockdown. I didn’t play a game. I won’t pretend I found it easy.” as reported by Wisden.

Jack Leach reveals how the players coped up 

Opening up further he said that many of his teammates got to different ways to make most of the time and accept the new normal.

“Most of us quickly got used to our new way of life: sitting alone at dinner, staring at the back of a team-mate’s head; no more than four to a lift, all standing in a corner; a TV room where we could gather, socially distanced, to watch football. I got through a lot of old episodes of The Office. Others preferred Xbox gaming, and there was a card school. Chris Woakes developed a reputation as a master barista.”

“As a cricketer, you often feel as if you’re on a conveyor belt, with little free time to improve your skills. I think I did that, so my time in lockdown didn’t feel like a waste, and I really enjoyed bowling for Somerset in the final of the Bob Willis Trophy. I can’t say I missed the bubble” Leach added.