'Everyone has just got to adapt as we go forward. Hopefully the situation will improve in the near future and we can still have a bit of truncated, shortened season'
Thursday 26 March 2020 07:18, UK
Jos Buttler says his England and Lancashire team-mates are embracing the challenges of staying fit during the coronavirus pandemic in the hope that cricket will return later in the year.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has sent fitness equipment and a personalised training plan to each of its centrally-contracted men's and women's internationals during the break of action, after the postponement of all cricket until at least May 28.
Buttler has already supplemented this by filming instructional Instagram videos with his wife Louise, who is a Pilates instructor - the wicketkeeper-batsman even wearing full England kit in some exercises.
He explained that both the ECB and his county are very clear on what the players should be staying on to of their fitness right now.
"There are some real good guidelines coming out from the ECB on Whatsapp and it's a very similar message from Lancashire," he told Sky Sports News.
"It's obviously very frustrating for the Lancashire boys; you're on the cusp of the summer starting and you've spent a lot of time indoors throughout the winter getting ready for the season.
"But everyone has just got to adapt as we go forward. Hopefully the situation will improve in the near future and we can still have a bit of truncated, shortened season.
"The T20 Blast is the lifeblood of a lot of the counties - that's where they probably make most of their money - with counties also doing conferences and events at their grounds, which has been hit hard.
"Whether there will be enough time to get a full Championship competition in, we'll have to see. There are lots of questions."
The ECB's 'home training' package for players includes TRX ropes, some resistance bands, a medicine ball and a kettle bell.
Rob Ahmun, ECB's National Lead Coach for Strength & Conditioning, explained: "We've set up individual programmes for them based on their home constraints - we've worked out what kit they've got available already, added to the kit we've given them, and tailored that to make sure the players are getting adequate physical preparation done.
"Moving forwards we will be interacting a lot through video calls to go through the sessions with players, watching them perform and coach them as much as we possibly can in an online capacity.
"It's about maintaining their physical conditioning and making sure they don't regress. If the season does come about and we know we have, say, a six-week build-up to the season we've ensured the players aren't starting for a training base of zero, they're starting from a decent base so they can hit the ground running."
England men's Test captain Joe Root said: "While it has been good to get some downtime after our return from Sri Lanka, keeping my fitness up is really important so I can be at the top of my game when we get back on the field.
"I'm an active person anyway, with my young son keeping me busy, but having a structured plan will help me improve in certain areas.
"We'd obviously much rather be playing cricket right now, but this gives us an opportunity to recover from a demanding past 12 months and get our bodies in good shape for when matches resume."
England Women's captain Heather Knight said: "It's obviously not ideal but it's a great way of trying to stay in shape and keep ticking over.
"As cricketers I think we're pretty used to keeping fit remotely but this is a new challenge - we'll all just be doing what we can to maintain our levels and hopefully be as ready as we can when we get back playing, whenever that comes.
"We've got [training] programmes to follow and we've been doing a bit together on Houseparty. I said to the girls that I'll be available between 6pm-7pm to do the sessions together or just to have a chat. We're used to training together so it's nice to do that digitally if we can."
