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Well, the pandemic has taken hold and for TGC that only means one thing: overlaying inappropriate and ill-advised cricketing analogies to describe the deepest health and economic crisis in living memory. Gee COVID-19’s hooping ‘em. Because of the times, this week we’ve gone for a ‘we not me’ approach. To offset our intellectually limited analysis with something more responsible, we speak with Cricket Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr John Orchard, about the game’s response, what we can do, and virtual circuits. He’s followed by Sports Feature Writer at Indy Sport in the UK, Vithushan Ehantharajah, before Sutherland, Yorkshire and England stalwart Tim Bresnan joins to talk Sachin, pro sportsmen, Leeds, and his new podcast, Taking the Covers Off (or something). AskTGC tosses up a litany of verbiage about liking Australians, anxiety-free premierships, a strong riposte to a previous AskTGC, and whether or not wearing Budgies makes one more alpha. Finally, a request: we are working on something very exciting which we’re hoping to announce to you guys soon. But we want to get the ball rolling on it now. We are calling on anyone who’s played club cricket this year to make written submissions for: - Best batting innings they saw this year – doesn’t have to be highest runs scored, can be for any reason - Best bowling they saw this year - Most frightening cricket dream they’ve had or heard of - Leading Alpha - Best Club Volunteer - Best Rig - Best Rare Unit - Best Circuit story (that is not defamatory, unsavoury or libellous) There are 8 categories – submissions are open now – please send them either to gradecricketer@gmail.com, or our Facebook DMs. There will be more info on this in this coming week. Please ply us with those stories from clubland – anywhere around the world – and we will do the rest. To finish: The Grade Cricketer will be here through isolation. We will keep casting. We have a few ideas in the works through this period, especially because there’s a good chance our English audience may not see much cricket, if any, through the summer. Stay tuned. *** Big thanks to Budgy Smuggler for their unyielding support. *** We have merch, namely Stubby Holders, and Smugglers. Head to https://gradecricketer.club/shop for the specifics *** Big thanks to Jarryd Biviano @thefifthcreative and Julia Dowe for our podcast art, Toby Shain for the voiceovers + fake ad production, and Adrian Leung for our intro tune. *** Email the show at gradecricketer@gmail.com