New Zealand cricketer Jimmy Neesham thinks that players will be ready to play cricket behind closed doors, including the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year. Neesham has the experience of playing in a match without spectators against Australia, which also remains the last international match played before the pandemic.
All the cricketing activities across the globe have been suspended to contain the spread of the virus. “All things considered, you would rather have fans at the ground but you wanna adapt to the situation that is presented to you. If it becomes a situation where the tournament can only be played behind closed doors, then we have to adapt as the players.
I think the reality is that it is a huge financial challenge for a lot of cricket boards to still run without any revenue coming in from matches. If it means we need to play behind closed doors, I do not think players would have any problem,” Neesham said. Talking about the preparation of the shortest format World Cup, the 29-yearold batter said the team’s morale is high as they have performed consistently well in the major tournaments in the past few years.
Kiwis are the runners-up of the last two editions of the 50-over World Cup and setting their eye on the first limited-overs title. “We feel that New Zealand is a very strong white-ball unit. When you look at global tournament results over the last four-five years. We certainly played our best cricket in the tournaments,” he said.