Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rejected Boris Johnson’s request for the nation’s quarantine restrictions to be eased so the England cricket team’s families can join the upcoming Ashes tour.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson extended his diplomatic duties to cricket while the pair are in Washington. The England cricket team want to travel to Australia with their loved ones for the five-Test series over December and January.
“I raised it and he said he was going to do his best for the families,” Johnson told media as the UK, Australia and USA are working closely following the announcement of a nuclear-powered submarine deal.
“He totally got the point that for cricketers it is very tough to ask people to be away from their families over Christmas.
“He merely undertook to come back and see if he could find a solution.”
But the summer of cricket in Australia looks very different amid a pandemic with interstate border restrictions and strict international travel caps, including mandatory hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals. Prime Minister Morrison indicated he wouldn’t budge, not even for an ally.
“I would love to see the Ashes go ahead, as I shared with Boris last night,” Morrison told reporters in Washington.
“But there’s no special deals there, because what we’re looking to have is vaccinated people being able to travel.
“I don’t see a great deal of difference in skilled workers or students who will be able to come to Australia when you reach those vaccination rates.
“Those who are coming for that purpose when it comes to their profession, which is playing cricket, I don’t see the difference between that and someone who’s coming as a skilled, qualified engineer or someone who’s coming to be ready for study.”
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Last month the England and Wales Cricket Board said they were “very confident” the Ashes series would proceed and planned despite threats that some England players would opt out if families were not allowed to travel with them to Australia.
With vaccination rates quickly rising across Australia, there are hopes that border restrictions and quarantine requirements will ease by the end of the year but there remains some differences between federal and state government ‘reopening’ plans.
“This week we will hit three-quarters of Australians aged over 16 first dose, and we will hit one in two having received their second dose. And those vaccination numbers will continue to rise,” Morrison said.
“And as they rise, the opportunities to get back to life as normal as it can be living with the virus, will just be coming closer each and every day.”
Cricket Australia are yet to confirm the exact details of what protocols the England team and those travelling with them will have to adhere to upon arrival in Australia for the Ashes.
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