The England cricket team will not have any more football warm-ups in their practice sessions.
This move was announced after opening batsman Rory Burns suffered an ankle injury in the build-up to the second Test match against South Africa at the Newlands in Cape Town.
Burns was ruled out for the rest of the series and flew back home for treatment after injuring his ankle while playing football last Thursday.
It was a sad exit for the player, who would have liked to show his influence and take up space in this England side.
Seeing the incident unfold, former Australian spin legend Shane Warne went on to lash out at cricket teams for involving football as part of the training. Warne also said that warm-ups that include football are overrated.
“Warm-ups have been overrated for a long, long period of time,” Warne said on Fox Cricket. “Everyone goes out onto the ground, they warm up and they run around and do these silly little ladders and all that absolute rubbish that’s not going to help you for the day.
And you go inside and you sit down for half an hour and work out what you’re going to do. Warm-ups, overrated.”
Warne also rated these warm-up sessions as absolute garbage.
“Get to the ground later, have a bigger sleep in, get to the swimming pool, get out and play. You don’t need all that absolute garbage at warm-ups.”
Somewhere down the line, the cricketing ace made a lot of sense in highlighting the issues that revolve around these warm-ups. Here we analyze why teams should follow England and ban a contact sport like football from training.
Ashely Giles players a major role in banning football
Moreover, England director of cricket Ashley Giles previously said he thought playing football was too dangerous. Giles also previously banned Warwickshire players from playing football while he was director of cricket at the county.
While taking over as the director earlier last year, Giles had said that although football has benefited from a psychological and fun point of view, there are dangers present as well.
“I don’t want to be blamed for losing the World Cup because we are not playing football,” Giles said. “If you look at what football does, the benefits from a psychological and fun point of view are outstripped by the dangers.”
The former left-arm spinner didn’t make the decision to scrap football back then. “But we will discuss that. I am not coming in with an iron rod right now,” he said. However, this time, the former cricketer pulled on the strings completely.
England team has faced such issues in the past
The England cricket team isn’t new to injuries taking place at warm-ups.
This is the third such instance that happened. Previously, wicket-keeper batsman, Jonny Bairstow missed the Galle Test against Sri Lanka last winter after suffering a similar injury playing football.
Bairstow had suffered a twisted ankle.
England’s players regularly played a short game of football in training and in their pre-match warm-ups. According to a report in the BBC, the players enjoyed the sessions and awarded each other fantasy football values on the tour of Lanka.
Top order batsman Joe Denly was also injured by a tackle from teammate Owais Shah several years ago.
The senior player went on to state the risks involved with football. He had himself suffered a knee injury in a challenge from team-mate Owais Shah in 2009 and football was banned for a time by then England coach Andy Flower.
Referring to the incident, Denly told BBC, “A few of the lads were saying I ruined their football – the best part of the day as they say. Thankfully it is back in now and hopefully no more injuries.”
Football is a contact sport and things can go awry
To be honest, this is indeed a brutal way of having players get injured prior to an important match. Football is a contact sport and things can get heavy on players if a tackle gets misplaced.
This is a smart move by the ECB to ban the sport as part of warm-ups in cricket. It reduces the risk factor by a considerable margin.
There are many other activities that can be done in warm-ups and not having a contact sport is wise.
Back in 2006, former Indian cricketing legend Yuvraj Singh had suffered a ligament tear behind his left knee while playing kho-kho in a warm-up session. The side gave up the sport in its warm-up drills.
Besides that, former Aussie pacer Glenn McGrath was injured when he was involved in a knock-about rugby game ahead of a cricket match.
His exit helped England get hold of the Ashes after having lost the first Test.
To not have these sorts of contact sports is a decision that needs to be taken by all teams. Football, in particular, should be stopped.
The chances of injuries are more and things can go awry. It is an apt decision if all cricket nations come together and say farewell to contact sports in their warm-up drills.
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