NICK HOWSON: India are without their skipper for much of the Australia Test series while T20 franchise cricket heads to Sri Lanka
Virat Kohli will likely miss much of the Australia Test series as he returns to India to attend the birth of his first child.
He will play in the first day-night Test in Adelaide before travelling home to be with wife Anushka Sharma, who is due in January.
In normal circumstances, Kohli could re-join his teammates for the second half of the series. But with arrivals into Australia forced to quarantine for 14 days, that ensures his involvement in the series will surely be curtailed.
Look deep enough into the social media mire and you'll find an opinion that both delights and enrages you, on any subject. Pandora's box has been open for a while.
News that Kohli could miss as many as three Tests sparked reaction which spans the spectrum. Some respected a personal decision, others questioned his commitment to his country.
Kohli has played on three previous Test tours in Australia, won a series as captain, scored six centuries in 12 matches and averaged 55.39 with the bat. There is not a lot left for him to achieve. Another full series matters little to his career CV. And be under no illusions, there will be others.
The sceptics have wasted little time comparing Kohli's decision with that of his predecessor MS Dhoni, who remained in Australia in 2015 when his wife Sakshi gave birth to daughter Ziva during the World Cup.
“As of now I am on national duties so I think everything else can wait,” Dhoni told the media of the decision. “The World Cup is a very important campaign.”
Virat Kohli's actions have been compared to those of MS Dhoni
Players don't deserve to all be tainted with the same brush. If Dhoni opts to remain with his team, it is equally as personal a decision as it is for Kohli to fly home. Covid-protocols don't come into it nor affect the conclusion.
England captain Joe Root missed the first Test against West Indies in the summer to be with his expectant wife. Colleague Huw Turbervill wrote about his absence, citing the reaction to Nasser Hussain flying his own partner out to Australia to have their second child during the 2002-03 Ashes series. Even that move came in for criticism. You can't please everyone all of the time.
There is an argument that I'm giving detractors more attention than they deserve by handing their baseless opinions an additional platform. But it is worth contemplating and understanding the source of such wrath rather than shutting it down completely.
Criticism of Kohli or Hussain comes from a place where fans expect sportspeople to perform for them at will, and are considered weak for putting anything before club and country. Sport is too often seen exclusively as a mode of entertainment, forgetting that for those within it is just a job. I'd defy you to find anyone in my profession who would willingly miss a major family event to cover day three at Bristol or Hove.
The sacrifices that have already been made need respecting far more than they currently are. Players already spend months away from family as it is. Criticising them for putting them first once in a while is unwarranted.
Former Kent seamer Ivan Thomas is keen on a move into coffee
Over the last few weeks, I've had the pleasure of speaking to several players on the peripheral of the county circuit, left unattached by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some were released due to financial restraints, others unable to find another side due to incomings being limited. They're firmly on the side-lines, and like many of us are sitting and waiting for clarity.
One common theme when speaking to players is in spite of the hand they've been dealt, they seem prepared for it. The PCA educate players better than ever over life after cricket, but it just so happens that that knowledge might become relevant ahead of schedule.
Chris Nash has moved into private healthcare, Harry Finch is considering a degree and a teaching career while Ivan Thomas has designs of opening a coffee shop. Liam Banks, meanwhile, has linked up with his brother's landscaping firm.
It is times like these when support structures prove their worth. Not all players' unions support their members effectively, but the PCA have pulled out all the stops.
With the body expecting as many as 70 players to leave the professional game in England in 2020, contracts have been re-written, summer deals can be offered and rookie contracts extended, in an effort to stem the deluge of departures. We await to see how effective those measures will be.
Arguably, the PCA's biggest achievement will be a silent one. Ensuring players are provided with a route into a second professional is almost as important as keeping them in the sport. That advice might not be visible, but rest assured, it is happening.
Sri Lanka's cricketing public are braced for a fully-fledged T20 competition
The tournament has a fifth different start date. The draft was postponed twice. Overseas players have withdrawn. It takes place while India are in Australia, New Zealand face West Indies and South Africa host England. The question is as much why as it is how.
Sri Lanka's struggles to get a T20 competition off the ground are well-known. Perhaps as a result of those problems, the country has decided to push on with plans for a 2020 edition, called the Lanka Premier League. Credit must go to whoever thought of the unimaginative name.
It is a rather tone-deaf approach from SLC. Several events have caved to the pressure presented by the Covid-19 crisis, yet they have ploughed on. Such relentlessness would almost be admirable if it weren't so misplaced.
Tournament organisers have been able to relax rules for overseas players, ensuring they will only have to quarantine for seven days upon their arrival as oppose to the regular 14. It was such a regulation which thwarted Bangladesh's Test tour and couldn't be negotiated on. Suddenly, there is wiggle room.
While we aren't privy to the mechanics of the negotiations behind the scenes, you wonder how prepared Sri Lanka Cricket were to lobby for an exemption for that tour, particularly when the LPL has mysteriously earned special dispensation.
At least some of the world will get to see how it all unfolds. The LPL will be shown by Sony Sports and Sony Ten in India. Talks are underway over the remaining global TV rights.
But with the calendar packed towards the end of the year, will anyone actually hear the fall of this particular tree make a sound?
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