Matthew Mott confident of players turning up well after the COVID-19 break

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Flexible Australia look to finalise combination ahead of opening game

Matthew Mott. © Getty Images



The world is under a lockdown, thanks to the coronavirus. That means that the future – about resumption of cricket – is pretty uncertain. But Matthew Mott, Australia’s head coach, isn’t perturbed by that.



“I think we’ve already got our head around the fact we’ll need to be flexible,” he told cricket.com.au.



“But with how well resourced our state programs are, we’ve almost been talking a lot about being able to get the players to train in their own states anyway. It’s a complete shutdown at the moment and they can’t get into the state facilities, but I think it’s an opportune time for them to think about what that’s going to look like.”



Australia were to tour South Africa for three ODIs and three T20Is, before it was called off. But now that they have an extended break, it is quite a deserving one coming on the back of a busy period, that culminated with their fifth T20 World Cup win.



Given the lockdown prevents people from stepping out, thus ruling out training camps during winter, Mott is confident of the structure in place, which will mean that players don’t turn up out of sorts post the break.



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“We’ve got key staff in different areas, we’ve pretty much got most of the major cities covered,” he said.



“That will become key, and I said to some of the staff yesterday, however isolated we feel, we’ve got the best IT programs in the world in terms of cricket. Because of how well resourced we are at state level, we can communicate really well and make sure our players are being well looked after. It’s a hard time for the community and there are tough times ahead but purely from a cricket point of view, I think we can actually manage quite well.”



Players have been shipped some equipment including therabands and smaller weights, while Noel McCarthy, strength and conditioning coach, has issued the players with programs that require little equipment.



“It’s just giving them some small tools they can do in their own home,” explained Mott. “The way they are now they can still run, so we’ve got some running programs in there as well. Noel has looked at it in a really positive sense, it’s just a slight change of focus really. Generally, we’d be doing more strength work at this stage, so this is just more running stuff and making sure they’re keeping fit that way. It’s just a slight adjustment on their programs.”



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“You can look at this in one of two ways – in a negative way and say this is going to be hard, or see it an opportunity to work on some fitness and clear their heads a bit and fill in some time. There’s no doubt with the group we’ve got, they’re going to look at it in a really positive light and spend some time with their loved ones at home and then they’ve got a lot of time to train. I think they can use it well, there’s literally no distractions. I’ve got full confidence they’ll be working really hard.”



Post this indefinite break, Mott is of the belief that a shortened preseason camp would enable players to get back into the groove. He placed particular emphasis on bowling.



“We’ve got to make sure we keep our bowling loads up enough so when we get to that New Zealand series, they’ve got the miles under their belts,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep rolling with it and seeing what each day brings.”



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