"What's important to remember is we are in a position to help continue the global game. There should be no more motivation than that to do everything right"
Tuesday 18 August 2020 17:17, UK
Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch says players' mental health must be monitored as they stay in bio-secure bubbles to keep cricket going amid coronavirus.
Finch will lead a tour of England in September, which will comprise three T20 internationals and as many one-day internationals.
West Indies and Pakistan have stayed in bio-secure bubbles in England this summer and Finch's team will follow suit, while many of their players may then face a similar experience during this autumn's rescheduled IPL in the UAE.
The 33-year-old says he has spoken to his team about ensuring they stick to protocols and do not put the matches in any jeopardy.
"[Mental health] is something to monitor heavily. It could be a few months that people are in these bio bubbles and being stuck in a hotel room by yourself can be really tough," Finch said.
"I know from an Australian point of view there's a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that we've got all our checkpoints in place to understand and recognise when things might be a little bit off.
"What's important to remember is we are in a position to help continue the global game. There should be no more motivation than that to do everything right.
"I've been very strong with the guys in the last couple of weeks about making sure that we do literally everything we can with regards to the protocols to keep the global game going.
"If that fails then we are all out of jobs and the game is not in a healthy state, which we can't afford to have.
"There's been so much time and effort put in by thousands of people to give us the opportunity to play international cricket again. Even us leaving Australia is a big process.
"The people who've worked their backside off over the last couple of months to allow it to happen, thousands of people are doing an unbelievable amount of work to get the game up and running again. So we owe it to them in particular to do everything right."
Pat Cummins will be Finch's vice-captain for the tour and the skipper is looking forward to working with the fast bowler.
"The great thing Patty brings is a real calmness and he's someone who over the years has been able to separate the off-field stuff with his on-field performance and manages himself really well," added Finch.
"He brings a different perspective being a bowler as well, with the traditional captains and vice-captains being batsmen, so to have that real close connection to the bowlers is really important as well."
Watch Australia face England live on Sky Sports in September.
