ECB chief Tom Harrison confident about Ashes going ahead

While Ashes is still a fair way away, England cricketers have hinted they may skip the Ashes if the COVID-19 protocols are not eased in Australia. The England cricketers want their families to accompany them which contradicts the current COVID-19 regulations of the Australian government. However, despite all the negativity, England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tom Harrison said he is "very confident" of the Ashes going ahead.

"The Ashes is so important to global cricket, much like an England-India series," he said. "We never want to compromise the integrity of the series for any reason, Cricket Australia understand this, just as well as we do.

"The issue at the moment is the process that we need to go through to get the assurances that we need to be comfortable, that our players can get on the plane to Australia and feel confident that they can be at their best and they can perform at their best, without having to cope with the mental weight of being massively concerned about the conditions.

"We (the ECB and CA) are doing it together," he added. "This is not an adversarial conversation, it's one which we're doing together."

Both CA and ECB are keen for the series to go ahead as the postponement will negatively affect both boards, financially as well as in the ongoing World Test Championship as well. Earlier, CA said they are ready to ensure England players that their families can travel to Australia and the players will be free of bio-bubbles as long as they accept certain compromises, which includes only socialising outside of their hotels in groups of three or four.