Thursday 2 April 2020 16:44, UK
Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale and his wife Kate have registered as NHS volunteers to help cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
Gale says he had been moved to offer his help after witnessing his sister, a respiratory nurse, work on the frontline of the health service.
"I am hoping I will be accepted in the next 24 hours or so," he told Sky Sports News. "I'm lucky that I am fit and healthy and I am at an age where hopefully the virus wouldn't affect me too much.
"I've got time on my hands and my sister is a respiratory nurse, so I have seen what it is like for people on the front line and what a tremendous job they are doing.
"My wife has already been accepted, so she will download the app this afternoon and see the ways that she can help. Things such as picking medicine up from pharmacies, or shopping deliveries, whatever she can do for the NHS really."
Gale believes T20 cricket should take priority over other forms of the game if and when the sport is able to resume, believing the shorter format needs to be protected because of the money it brings in
"I think T20 cricket has got to come first. We have to make sure the TV money is still intact, a large chunk of that comes from T20 cricket," he said.
"I'm not sure we should play The Hundred, it may be a mistake, it's going to be an iconic tournament. To play that behind closed doors in its first year would be a mistake.
"There's a chance it could get cancelled at a later day because you can't fly some of the big names in from around the world and it won't be the spectacle it should be. First and foremost they have to protect T20 cricket because that is where the income is."
Gale echoed Sussex chief executive Rob Andrew in warning cricket clubs that they should all plan for a potential summer without any income from matches.
"It's certainly something we are thinking about," he said. "We went to Mumbai for our pre-season and only ended up staying one night because we feared the borders would be closed.
"At that point we thought if we miss the first month of the season, we'd still be able to cram all the fixtures in, but as time has gone on and we are seeing the number of people who are losing their lives, it's hard to see a way out of this at the minute. Cricket is sport, it's not people's lives.
"It'd be disastrous if we didn't get any cricket in, but it is something we definitely need to think about and plan for."
