England captain Heather Knight has signed up to be a National Health Service (NHS) volunteer during the coronavirus outbreak.
Knight only returned from Australia, where she led England to the semi-finals of the Women’s T20 World Cup, 10 days ago and is now living under the UK’s lockdown rules with her boyfriend in Bristol.
She revealed in her BBC column that she had volunteered for the scheme that will see people support the health service by delivering food and medicine, transporting patients to appointments and making calls to those in isolation.
“I signed up to the NHS’s volunteer scheme as I have a lot of free time on my hands and I want to help as much as I can,” Knight said. “My brother and his partner are doctors, and I have a few friends who work in the NHS, so I know how hard they are working and how difficult it is for everyone.”
More than half a million people signed up when the volunteer programme was announced on Wednesday. The following day, people from around the country took a moment during the evening to applaud the NHS from their residences.
“Standing on our doorstep, joining in the #ClapForCarers was incredible, and getting involved and volunteering will help even more,” Knight said.
“I’m going to get the car out as I’ve volunteered to transport medicine, and also speak to people who are self-isolating. If someone is home alone, you can ring them up and chat. They have had so many people sign up.”
The ECB, meanwhile, has indicated that it could consider installing coronavirus checkpoints and isolation units at grounds, as it examines the possibility of resuming cricket behind closed doors this summer.
Steve Elworthy, the ECB’s director of events, said games would need take place inside a “sterile” environment, likely with fewer than 500 people in the venue. “So it’s how you test them at the gate, the isolation units that you have to put in,” he told the Guardian. “These are considerations we are thinking about.”