n my mind’s eye a biosecure Old Trafford was completely domed over with a huge bubble, just as I’d imagined Center Parcs was when the ads first appeared on television in 1987. In fact, Old Trafford is outwardly exactly as it was, with a decaying B&Q next door and cars busying up the Great Stone Road on the first morning unessential shops open. The swifts knock around high above nearby Gorse Avenue, a woman walks past with a shopping trolley full of food from the huge Tesco round the corner and lockdown life goes on just as if an international sports team weren’t quarantined behind cricket’s brick walls. The rejigged ground now has an inner and outer ring, masks and gloves are compulsory in the inner sanctum. Hand sanitiser is everywhere and everyone within the walls is tested for Covid-19 every five days as well as having their temperature checked when they come through the gates. From a distance of 400 metres away the pitch looks mint green, no doubt helped by the Manchester rain that has returned after a brief vacation in April and May. A groundsman in short sleeves and shorts slowly pushes a wheelbarrow through the car park full of those familiar red and white security barriers. The West Indies players slowly appear for one of their two daily nets. I lurk in the car park of the building next to the ground and squint through the railings in true anorak style. I see maroon caps, a coach wearing a mask doing throwdowns and hear the life-affirming sound of bat on turf and then bat on ball. A delivery springs up unexpectedly – “Jesus, Lord have mercy,” booms the batsman into the morning air. West Indies arrived in the UK on the morning of 9 June, disembarking into the VIP area of Manchester Airport and then piling straight on to disinfected coaches. A week in they are pottering along, making the most of the games room provided by the England and Wales Cricket Board which includes pool, basketball hoops, a golf simulator, an Xbox, a Playstation, dominoes, cards and ping pong – Shamarh Brooks is the table’s reigning champion, closely followed by fellow batsman Kraigg Brathwaite. A Caribbean chef has been brought in and Sunday’s ackee and saltfish (Jamaica’s national dish) was particularly popular. The fast bowlers are working on a way to use their sweat to make the ball move now that saliva has been banned as an approved cricketing substance and everyone else just plugs on with training. Nearly every Caribbean island had some sort of lockdown so, though the Covid stats are much, much worse in the UK, the players are used to confinement. Brathwaite had been training at home in Barbados before flying to the UK. “For sure it will feel weird playing in front of empty stadiums in England, but I am accustomed to it from playing first-class cricket in the Caribbean. We know it won’t be an easy job winning the series, but we are here to do our jobs and we’re ready to play cricket. Maybe because of the restrictions some of the guys will have a little more focus.” And how did it feel arriving in the UK during the Black Lives Matter protests? “We have had some big discussions as a team, we support unity and education – they are key. We support the movement, everyone bleeds blood.” The team are yet to decide how they will show solidarity and they are not the only ones looking forward and wondering how the future may treat them. After Tom Harrison mentioned the “huge debt of gratitude” the ECB owed the West Indies for choosing to tour and thereby saving the ECB from near financial ruin, more than a few eyebrows have been raised over how exactly this debt might be repaid. Despite collegiate talk from the Big Three (India, Australia and England) over recent years, they have continued to plan for the future with the aim of lining primarily their own pockets. At the end of last year the Board of Control for Cricket in India president, Sourav Ganguly, proposed a Super Series, an annual one-day tournament involving – surprise, surprise – India, Australia and England, plus one other nation, a tournament that would fall outside the International Cricket Council’s jurisdiction so the competing boards would be able to keep all their own profits rather than have to divide them between member countries. The BCCI, Cricket Australia and the ECB had previously pooh-poohed an ICC idea for another one-day tournament because there was no time in the schedule. Meanwhile, West Indies, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are coming out of seven-year agreements with Sony Ten Sports so face added uncertainty until they can renew television deals, with the added complication that Sony were the host broadcasters paying for production costs as well as the rights-holders in all markets. West Indies’ financial situation is precarious – they finished the 2018-19 financial year with no reserves. Johnny Grave, CEO of Cricket West Indies, is hoping for a more understanding and generous attitude from the ECB and the rest of the Big Three. “West Indies does not expect any special favours from ECB in return for fulfilling our obligation to tour England this summer. We hope that the cricketing world can get back to enjoying some good cricket now and in the future. However, CWI has been lobbying all the international boards and the ICC for a more equitable distribution of revenues for a while now. “We would like not just the ECB, but all the more financially well-off boards, to recognise we are all in this situation together and need to help each other if we are to get through this global crisis. We hope that one of the positive changes from Covid-19 will be a new attitude of solidarity and a new long-term change to how ICC and the boards share revenues, so that everyone can have sustainability, field competitive teams, safeguard Test cricket and grow the game. We desperately need the big three to understand the need for long-term meaningful change to how ICC and bilateral cricket revenues are shared.” It is something us cricket lovers who reach out to tune in on 8 July must remember as well. This is an extract from the Guardian’s weekly cricket email, The Spin. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.