Not sustainable: Starc uneasy about ongoing hub life

Mitchell Starc is the latest cricketer to voice concerns over the long-term viability of the current arrangements underpinning top-level cricket, suggesting living in bio-secure hubs for months on end is "not sustainable".

Starc echoed comments made by international captains Virat Kohli, Eoin Morgan and Jason Holder in questioning how long players can cope with the mental strain of living in bubbles that forbid most interaction with the outside world.

Australia and India are expected to be subject to tight regulations for the duration of the summer, not least of which will be two weeks of mandatory quarantine for both India's extended squad as well as the Australian players returning from the IPL.

For the likes of Pat Cummins, David Warner, Steve Smith and Josh Hazlewood, it will be the latest hub in what could end up amounting to more than six consecutive months of living in strict bubbles. 

"It's not a sustainable lifestyle," said Starc after the Sydney Sixers announced he had signed on to play the back-end of the KFC BBL. 

"You're living in a hotel room with zero outside contact. Some guys haven't seen families or their kids for a long time, for those guys in the IPL. 

"It's tough going – we get to play cricket, (so) we can't complain too much – but in terms of wellbeing of players, staff and officials, how long can you stay in hubs for? 

"That question remains to be answered … For those guys who have been in the IPL and have to turn around and do another IPL at the end of next summer (in April and May, 2021), they're earning their money."

Starc added wryly that his national teammates in the IPL would not be "too unhappy coming home with bags of cash", but emphasised he had no regrets over his decision not to play in the lucrative tournament.

The resumption of cricket around the world in recent months has in most cases been dependent on players and officials being bound by tight restrictions that ensure no-one comes down with the highly infectious COVID-19 virus.

While these restrictions have allowed international cricket and T20 tournaments like the IPL to resume, governing bodies are becoming increasingly aware of the mental strain they inflict.

Generations of cricketers have become accustomed to being confined to hotel rooms and planes (or, going back further into the past, ships) for months on end and there has been a line of thinking that those experiences would mean they're better equipped to deal with elite sport's new normal, at least compared to footballers in Australia's domestic codes.

But India captain Kohli, one of the game's most well-travelled players, expressed his own reservations last week.

"These things will have to be considered … what length of the tournament or series one is going to play, and what impact it will have on players mentally, to stay in a similar environment for 80 days and not getting to do anything different," Kohli, whose wife Anushka Sharma is expected to give birth to their first child during India's tour of Australia, told RCB TV.

"At the end of the day, you want the players to be in the best state mentally and physically. Mentally it can be taxing if this continues for this long a period."

Morgan and Holder had made similar comments following West Indies' tour of England earlier this year, the first major international series played since the pandemic began.

Forgoing IPL riches has seen Starc instead enter the more relaxed Marsh Sheffield Shield hub in Adelaide, where players are permitted to partake in outdoor activities like golf and eat outside at restaurants.

Those all-format Australian players who went straight to the UAE for the IPL face a more challenging summer.

Smith, Cummins, Hazlewood and Warner were among those to depart Australia on August 23 for the limited-overs to England, before heading straight to the UAE for the ongoing IPL. When that concludes next week, they will return home and spend 14 days in quarantine ahead of playing India in T20Is, ODIs and Tests – commitments that will stretch to January 19. In February, there are then overseas tours to New Zealand (five T20Is) and South Africa (Tests), which are expected to overlap, before another IPL is likely to be played in its regular slot, starting in April.

In addition to hearing regularly from his Australian teammates, Starc is also well aware of the challenges on a personal front given his wife Alyssa Healy remains in the Rebel WBBL bubble in Sydney.

"When you're stuck in situations like that, month after month, going from bubble to bubble, and if those restrictions remain the same or quite similar, it can be quite tiresome on the mind and body as well," said Starc. 

"Not having that escape from day-to-day cricket certainly for myself to get that round of golf in or walk around is (difficult). That's important for people's wellbeing. 

"Then you throw in the extra hurdle with guys with families and kids going hub to hub and bubble to bubble, you throw in some restrictions in terms of quarantine and then it makes it quite difficult."

Starc is hopeful general community restrictions will be able to ease in the coming months in Australia and is eager to see what bubble arrangements look like for not only the Indian series, but also Australia's overseas tours in the new year.

"I couldn't tell you what the hub or bubble will look like in the Test summer, whether that's going to be quite strict, if it creates angst among families," he added. 

"There's a lot of questions to be asked and answered. As information comes through and things get clearer those conversations can be had. At the minute it's still so unclear, which is the way of the world."