Cricket West Indies CEO Johnny Grave has dampened expectations over the prospect of the venue for England’s upcoming Test series switching to the Caribbean to aid in cricket’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yesterday Grave had opened up the possibility of the West Indies hosting both England’s home summer Test series in the eventuality that the precautions to delay the spread of the novel coronavirus lead to both clashes being postponed, something seeming increasingly likely by the day. “We have offered to host the series here in the Caribbean if that is deemed helpful,” he told ESPNcricinfo.

However, he has since clarified that “no conversations” have been had over a possible switch, and labelled it an “unrealistic option”.

“I have not had any discussions with England over whether we can host,” he told the BBC. “It would be strange that England can’t have cricket but the Caribbean can. Realistically, without knowing anything about pandemics, if England can’t hold cricket then it almost certainly means the rest of the world can’t hold cricket either. I think it is an unrealistic option.

“I have been in contact with [ECB CEO] Tom Harrison a few times over the last week. The only discussions we have had are, in principle, having flexibility over warm-up games, when the series would start and how many rest days [there would be].

“We have given the ECB assurances that we will be as flexible as we can. We have not had any discussion about not playing them in June. We have not had any discussion about playing them later in the English summer. We have not had any discussion about hosting the matches here.”

The first of the three Tests is currently set to start on June 4.