Socially distanced sport is here to stay

We won’t know if there will soon be a modest easing of lockdown till next week, and even the first cautious steps towards liberation will not herald the return of sport. There are more important parts of the economy to get moving first.

One would suppose, however, that restrictions may be lifted on much amateur sport before too long. Even while we are required to observe and practise social distancing, there are games that can be played. Golf is clearly one, tennis, as long as you play singles, not doubles, another. Some athletics events are surely possible, cycling, so long as it takes the form of time trials, with competitors setting off at intervals, likewise.

But then you think of accidents. Cyclists may crash, suffering injuries that require immediate medical attention. Can this, in present circumstances, be provided?

That question is important. This point was made the other day by Dr James Robson, the chief medical officer of the Scottish Rugby Union, who has also been the team doctor for the British and Irish Lions. Rugby is a contact sport. There has been talk in rugby circles, as in others, of playing matches behind closed doors – that is, without spectators. Well, you can dispense with spectators, but not with medical staff. You also need an ambulance on hand or at least on call. But until the tide has fully turned and pressure on the NHS is no longer so heavy, providing the medical back-up for sporting events is low on the scale of priorities. This surely applies to all sports in which the need for medical support and facilities is usual rather than rare.

It applies obviously to racing. You may be able to stage a race meeting without a crowd and devise a means of establishing starting-prices even when there are no on-course bookies, but not without doctors and ambulance staff. And this is surely the case with all equestrian sport from the Pony Club to professional show-jumping, eventing as well as racing on the flat or over jumps.

Naturally, apart from the question of pleasure – though that is important for all us deprived souls – there is economic urgency. Professional clubs and national unions are businesses, and like almost all businesses have been hit hard by the shut-down. Money is still going out and there is none, or precious little, coming in.

One consequence is that even when playing becomes possible again, there will be conflict. For example, in rugby, the national unions are eager to play as many international matches this autumn as they can cram in. Speaking on behalf (I assume) of the Welsh Rugby Union, the national team’s coach Wayne Pivac spoke this week of hoping Wales could play seven or eight internationals this autumn; the Scottish Rugby Union hopes for five at least, two of these being in South Africa, matches originally scheduled for July. But more internationals would eat into the club game and naturally this isn’t welcomed. A suggestion of two weekends in October already scheduled for the first two round of the Heineken Cups met with a frosty reception from Simon Halliday, chief executive of European Professional Club Rugby. He said: “When we have club tournaments locked into multi-year contracts with partners and broadcasters, which is the lifeblood of the game, you can’t just cancel everything. If we don’t do what we are contracted to do, then there are ramifications.” There sure would be.

Uncertainty reigns everywhere. The ECB still hope that cricket may resume early in July, at first again behind closed doors. Being optimistic one may think that in, say, six months, we will be back to some sort of normality, finding ourselves in a position in which for most sports the immediate question is mediating between competing interests and trying to keep as many people happy as is possible.

Quite a juggling act in itself.

And yet in sombre moments one wonders if we shall ever return to what we have considered normal. Fear of a return of the virus is going to be with us for a long time. Are countries going to welcome the arrival of foreign fans for sporting events? The Japanese Prime Minister has even suggested that it might not be possible or wise to stage this summer’s postponed Olympic Games next year. Likewise one wonders when away fans will be welcome at football’s European Cup games or indeed at the European Nations Cup. Will South Africa be happy to receive twenty or thirty thousand followers of the Lions next summer? Or will economic considerations outweigh immediate health fears? In any case will fans themselves be confident to travel?

Then there’s the question of air travel itself.  Cities have been experiencing clear skies and a sharp drop in air pollution – partly because of the grounding of aircraft, partly of course because of the fewer cars, buses and lorries in the streets. People may think the economic benefits of a return to our pre-Coronavirus way of life outweigh those from reduced pollution, but one wonders. Even half a century ago most sport was domestic, trans-national sport a rare, exotic treat. Moreover when there was trans-national sport it was usually played before a home crowd, with few visiting fans.

Air travel was still very expensive, budget airlines almost unheard of. There were still top tennis players who never played the Australian Open: too far away, too expensive to get there. In Rugby the All Blacks might come to the northern hemisphere every four or five years. England cricketers played less than half the number of Tests in a calendar year than they do now. One great Lancashire fast bowler, Brian Statham played 70 Tests between 1951 and 1965. Another great Lancashire bowler, Jimmy Anderson has played 151 Tests from 2003 to 2020. Like Anderson Statham was rarely injured and very seldom omitted from the Test side when fit. May one possible consequence of what the virus lockdown has taught us about air pollution be that a future Lancashire fast bowler has a career more like Statham’s than Anderson’s, at least in the number of Tests played and hours spent in planes?