Ashes 2021: British PM Johnson asks Scott Morrison to ease quarantine rules for players

Given the COVID situation in Australia, the country has been imposing strict quarantine rules on people arriving from foreign countries. Now, English players are required to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine period upon arriving in Australia ahead of the Ashes, which is set to take place from December 8 at The Gabba in Brisbane.

With these strict rules in place, the English players are seeking assurance that allows their families to join them for the tour down under, with many of the players willing to give the tour a miss if families weren't allowed to accompany them to Australia.

In a recent interaction with Australia's Scott Morrison, British PM Boris Johnson raised the issue around the Ashes and was confident of getting a confirmation from his Australian counterpart. Speaking to reporters in Washington, Boris Johnson said, “I raised it and he said he was going to do his best for the families. He totally got the point that for the cricketers, it is very tough to ask people to be away from their families over Christmas. He merely undertook to come back and see if he could find a solution.”

'There won’t be any need for special deals to allow families to travel to the country': Scott Morrison

Australian PM Scott Morrison gave the affirmation about the discussion while also confirming that there isn't any need for special deals to allow families to travel to the country. Speaking to the media, Morrison said, “I’d love to see the Ashes go ahead, as I shared with Boris. But there are no special deals there because what we’re looking to have is vaccinated people being able to travel.”

“I don’t see a great deal of difference in skilled workers or students who will be able to come to Australia when you reach those vaccination rates. Those who are coming for that purpose when it comes to their profession, which is playing cricket. I don’t see the difference between that and someone who’s coming as a skilled, qualified engineer or someone coming to be ready for study,” he concluded.

The Australian government plans to ease border and quarantine restrictions by the end of 2021. With the vaccination drives throughout the country, it expects 80% of adults to receive their two vaccination jabs by the end of 2021. All that can be hoped for now is that all the players get to travel to Australia and we the cricketing fans, get to see the old rivalry play out. 

Image: AP