Beginning a Test tour with hazmat suits, disinfection spray and isolation would knock many athletes for six, but England’s cricketers are grateful for the cautious welcome laid on by their Sri Lankan hosts, fast bowler James Anderson said Monday.
England arrived on the Indian Ocean island on Sunday to resume a tour cancelled in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and will be hoping to repeat their 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in 2018.
At the airport, Joe Root’s men were greeted by staff in hazmat suits who sprayed the team and their luggage with disinfectant before they were allowed into the terminal to take their second covid test in as many days.
“Yeah, it was pretty unusual,” Anderson told an online press conference of the welcome. “But I think from our point of view, we spoke about it after and it made us feel really safe.”
The team had the small airport at Mattala all to themselves, as virtually no international flights are allowed into the country as it…