Northants' pre-season preparations 'shut down' for four weeks due to coronavirus pandemic

Following the England & Wales Cricket Board's announcement on Friday that the domestic season will be suspended until at least May 29, the County's playing squad has now been told to stay at home for the next four weeks.

Ripley had been hoping that the players, who returned home early from their pre-season training camp in Singapore last Tuesday, would be able to report to the County Ground in small groups to continue their pre-season preparation.

But with serious doubts over when, or even if, the season will get underway this summer, Ripley feels the club is 'fighting the tide' of the Covid-19 crisis, and that it would be too much of a 'risk' to bring players into contact with one another.

Some of the squad were at Wantage Road on Monday morning, but Ripley revealed they were quickly sent home again, and they won't be coming back in a hurry.

"We had a little gathering on Monday morning of lads who wanted to come in and get some kit, so the strength and conditioning lad has emptied out all the stuff from the gym," said the Northants head coach.

"So the lads have taken various bits of equipment home with them.

"I did have some ideas about perhaps in two or three weeks getting small groups together, small pods of five or six players, getting together weekly, but I just think we are fighting the tide.

"We have come to the conclusion that we are just going to basically shut down.

"The lads are going to try and stay fit at home, and the strength and conditioning department can monitor them online, and have various apps, so they can see what they are doing.

"We have stressed to the players that we need them to stay fit, because if we do then get any kind of green light (to play again) we can just concentrate on cricket skills."

Northants are not alone in taking this decision, with Ripley adding: "I have looked around the grounds a little bit, and most of the clubs are in a similar area to us, although one or two are still tinkering around with small sessions.

"But I just feel that, given how strong the Government advice is, and the fact we are preparing for a season that could still not happen, it just seems like a pointless exercise of a waste of energy and risk, by bringing people into contact with each other.

"So we are going to shut down for a month and then review it all in a month's time, and when we get towards the end of April we can see if anything has changed.

"They did say (playing) in June is possible, so if we get towards the end of April and into May, then we will know whether that is realistic or not.

"We then might start looking at a three-week window to start preparing for that first game, but I think anything more than that seems over ambitious."

As it stands, the cricket season has been suspended until May 28, with the Vitality T20 Blast competition due to start the following day.

Northants were due to start their Specsavers County Championship Division One season on April 19 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston, but that match, along with their next five in the competition have been postponed.