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Joe Root personally contacts every England player as he emerges as caring leader amid coronavirus crisis

, Joe Root personally contacts every England player as he emerges as caring leader amid coronavirus crisis

JOE ROOT has emerged as the caring captain as he tries to help cricketers steer a safe path through the current health crisis.

Root has personally contacted every England player to make sure they remain fit, active and healthy in both body and mind.

England skipper Joe Root is using his position to try and help the country deal with coronavirus

And he and women’s skipper Heather Knight yesterday released an open letter in which they salute “unsung heroes” on the frontline and insist “never has teamwork been more important in our society”.

Root has also become patron of a Sheffield children’s hospital as well as posting social media videos urging people to stay at home to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

From his home in Sheffield, Root said via a video conference call with cricket journalists: “Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been in touch with every single player who appeared for England during the winter to make sure everyone is OK.

“The dressing-room environment is very difficult to replicate, camaraderie is very important. At this time of year, guys would normally be very excited after training all winter to get ready for the start of the season.

, Joe Root personally contacts every England player as he emerges as caring leader amid coronavirus crisis

Root has also been looking out for his team-mates’ physical and mental health

“We’re trying to keep that atmosphere. The nights are getting a bit longer, you can feel summer coming round, you have to find ways of staying together and staying up.

“It could be a while before the groups get back together again. It’s important to find ways of keeping each other in good spirits and holding that team together.

“At times, you can take those friendships for granted, especially when you play as much as we do. That’s becoming more evident the longer we spend apart.

“It’s only been 2½ weeks but, if it goes on for a good while, I can see the loss of the dressing-room feel being the thing that really sticks out.

“I haven’t picked a bat up yet, so I’m sure at some point I’ll be shadow-batting in the house!”
, Joe Root personally contacts every England player as he emerges as caring leader amid coronavirus crisis

Root added: “I’m taking this very seriously, trying to stay indoors as much as possible, avoid contact at all costs.

“It’s almost impossible to get online shops at the minute — we’ve had one booked for three or four weeks.

“We’re literally trying to get out as little as possible, be efficient with what we’re buying and trying to be creative with our cooking, finding different ways of using what we have in the fridge, not wasting anything.

“I’ve wanted to get involved with the children’s hospital for quite a while now. We’re very lucky in Sheffield to have that facility.

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“It’s great what the NHS has done and how they’ve dealt with this situation, their work is incredible.

“The number of people who have volunteered is amazing and it’s special how communities have come together.”

Root is one of the most grounded, solid and thoughtful men in elite sport.

Hopefully, it is not betraying a confidence to reveal that, when a cricket-writing colleague suffered the agonising loss of his daughter this year, Root was straight on the phone to him offering support and sympathy.

Now he is keeping tabs on his England and Yorkshire mates.

He said: “I’m enjoying the chance to spend time with family at home — we don’t usually get a huge amount of that.

“We’re living in strange times and I think it’s important to try to help and support everyone around us and come together. We’ve seen a lot of that across the nation in the last couple of weeks.”

Cricket talk seems largely irrelevant but, if and when the game resumes, Root fears the momentum created by three back-to-back wins in South Africa could be lost.

Young players such as Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope were emerging and the warm-ups in Sri Lanka were also encouraging before the tour was aborted.

Root added: “It is frustrating. There are more important things now but, from a cricketing point of view, we were preparing well for the two Tests in Sri Lanka after making big strides in South Africa.

“But every other country will be in the same boat and so will every other sport.

“No one knows when we’ll be back playing. We’ve just got to adapt and make sure we’re doing everything we can to look after the community and wait for the opportunity to play again.

“When that chance comes, all the guys will be desperate and the pent-up energy from spending time at home will be expended on the field and into performances.”
Tweet @JohnSunCricket

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