manchester england the old trafford cricket ground is spearheading plans in england to try to bring fans back into a sports venue during the coronavirus pandemic lancashire cricket club chief executive daniel gidney believes social distancing can be applied in their 26000seat ground to allow in at least 1000 fansnot only are mass gatherings still banned by the government but sports teams arent allowed to play or train together a cricket season that was due to start in april wont begin until july at the earliestim hopeful that we can get some domestic cricket away in the back end of august and september at least behind closed doors but possibly even with some small crowds gidney told the associated press sometimes you can get into this negative box and when im being positive im not being reckless or saying things that cant happen from a safety perspectivegidneys plan for the northwest england cricket ground could form a template that facilitates the return of muchneeded revenue from fans attending sports venues taiwan is hoping up to 1000 spectators will be allowed to attend baseball games from julywe could have domestic cricket with 20003000 people in with seats separated out in the stadium perspex barriers on counters gidney said in an interview by video link there are ways that we can make a sanitised smaller crowd domestic cricket environment possible at the back end of the year based on the current trajectories that were looking at from the science and the infection rate keeping downas long as the infection rate continues to drop then i believe that we should be able to get some form of domestic cricket back and hopefully with some small crowdsfinancial successes last year for lancashire help to ease the financial burden caused by the shutdown of sport and the conference and event business in the hotel adjacent to the cricket groundlancashire reported a record turnover of 34 million pounds and net profit of 2 million pounds in 2019 with half generated from staging cricket world cup matches and a test in englands ashes series against australia cash reserves are at 17 million pounds while liabilities have dropped below 500000 poundslancashire is hoping the presence of a 150bed hilton garden inn on site will also facilitate the return of international cricket this summer by creating a bubble the players dont leave once they have been tested for the coronavirusif youre negative you go into the bubble gidney said then in theory its a bit like going to lockdown with your family and over a period of time as long as you dont step outside of the bubble then thats possibly as safe as you can bethe club is still waiting to learn whether it will receive england tests this year against the west indies and pakistan the england and wales cricket board want them to be hosted in biosecure environments without elaborating so farpakistan captain babar azam is still keen to play matches in england in july and