Former England all-rounder Ian Botham has claimed that he got infected by the dreaded coronavirus early this year, but mistook it for “a bad case of flu.”
“I think the thing to remember is that six months ago no one even knew what this was, hadn’t heard of it,” Botham told Good Morning Britain. “I had it at the end of December, beginning of January, and I thought I had a bad case of flu. It’s amazing how long it has been around.”
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Botham urged the people to show a bit of patience as he hoped things will improve in a couple of weeks.
“I think people have been responding extremely well. I hope they show a bit more patience over the next couple of weeks or so, so we can get to a situation where everybody can move around,” he said.
Botham has little doubt that the sport will begin soon as cricket is a such a game in which social distancing is possible. “I think cricket will be back very shortly. Cricket can be played. There’s no real physical contact there, you can keep your social distancing quite easily,” said the 64-year-old.
Botham, who is the chairman at Durham, said deliberations are on and a decision will come soon.
“I believe there is a couple of meetings coming up where the decisions will be made. From my point of view, speaking to the boys at Durham, they are back in training, they are very, very keen to get out there and play, as any young sportsman,” he said.
“There is talk about whether it is white ball or red ball cricket — it should be both, all aspects of the game should come back.”
