Northants confirm club's pre-season trip to Singapore will go ahead despite coronavirus outbreak

The club has taken Government advice and also consulted with the chief medical officer of the England & Wales Cricket Board, Nick Peirce, and both parties have said it is safe to travel to Singapore.

The County are due to spend 12 days in the country, training outdoors at the exclusive Singapore Cricket Club throughout their stay, and after much deliberation over what his happening worldwide with cornavirus, have decided to carry on with the trip to Asia.

"There was quite a lot of doubt, and we did start looking at alternative venues as a possible switch about a month ago," said Ripley.

"But you haven't got any insurance for that kind of stuff, because the Government advice is that you can still go to Singapore. If that wasn't the Government advice, then we wouldn't be going, obviously.

"But they are saying it is safe to go there, if you do all the necessary stuff you have to do.

"I have been following the situation pretty closely out there and they seem to have got a pretty good grip on things.

"I think they have now gone over 100 cases in Singapore, and when you consider they were out of the blocks with 40 or 50 cases pretty quickly, they really seem to have things under control.

"The advice we have been given from the ECB and from the Singapore club itself, it is that everything is in a good spot and it shouldn't stop us from going there."

Although the County are still travelling, the programme for the trip has been altered, with planned outreach events in the local community, such as the players going into schools to coach local youngsters, being scrapped.

"We have cut all of that right back so we are pretty much going to be at the hotel and then the cricket venue," said Ripley, who believes the Singapore CC is going to be an ideal base.

"The Singapore Cricket Club is an iconic place, right in the centre of Singapore, and people can't just wander in there because it is a very expensive and pricey place to be a member of.

"They have precautions in place, they have people taking visitors' temperatures on the way in, and there is only one entrance because they have closed the others."

Players and staff have been offered the opportunity to stay at home if they don't want to risk travelling, with Ripley saying: "One or two individual players had some doubts, and we would have respected their wishes if they didn't want to go.

"But the way it is going in the UK, it is almost even-steven now in terms of the number of cases in both countries."

Ripley does acknowledge there is still a risk involved in travelling to Singapore, but feels it is no greater risk than staying in the UK, and the facts back him up.

The latest official figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control revealed at 8am on March 6, state that Singapore has reported two fewer cases of Coronavirus than the UK so far, with the numbers 115 to 117.

There have also been no deaths there as a result of the outbreak, compared to one here.

"Obviously the worst case scenario is not great and and we end up holed up somewhere for 14 days just before the cricket season starts, which would be a bit of a disaster," admitted Ripley on the prospect of having to go into quarantine on the squad's return on March 20.

"But if any one of our group came into contact with anybody here (with Coronavirus), then that would probably be the outcome anyway because we spend so much time together as a squad.

"We have contacted the Government through the helpline and listened to the advice for everybody.

"Then there is Dr Nick Peirce (ECB chief medical officer), and he has been giving advice for everybody's trips, so I think we have done all we can.

"The PCA (Professional Cricketers Association) have been involved as well with some questions they wanted answering, so I think the club has done all they can and we think we will be alright.

"There is now less worry about all of that to be honest, and I think it is fair to say everybody is more excited about the cricket now."