Cricket Australia focused on players' mental well-being ahead of the first tour in months

 Cricket Australia is focused on closely monitoring players' mental health as the Australian cricket team tours for the first time in six months amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team leaves on Sunday for a tour originally scheduled for July but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

To play their first international game in nearly six months, the Australians have agreed to strict biosecurity plans that include playing in venues with on-site accommodation.

The arrangements raise the possibility of long-isolated periods in hotel rooms, and Finch said Cricket Australia wanted to ensure the players' mental well-being.

"That is going to be something that is going to be a real problem, it is going to be something that needs to be monitored a lot," he told reporters at an online conference.

"I know from an Australian point of view that there is a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure there are checkpoints in place to ensure that we understand and recognize when things could be a little bit wrong."

Finch said a sports psychologist was traveling with the team and had spoken with all of the players to help them develop individual plans for coping.

With some players traveling directly from England to the Indian Premier League in the United Arab Emirates after the tour, Finch said that cricketers had to adapt to the bio-bubble environment.

"It could be a few months that you're in these bio-bubbles and being stuck in these hotel rooms for weeks or months can be really difficult," he said.

Finch urged all players to accept the drawbacks of bio bubbles and quarantine to help keep international cricket going through the pandemic.

"We are in a position to continue the global game, there should be no more motivation than that," he said. "At the end of the day, if that fails, then we are all out of work.

"A lot of work has been done by thousands of people to give us the opportunity to play international cricket again."

Finch said he would support other commitments, such as moving the Boxing Day Test against India from Melbourne to another location as his hometown struggles to contain a COVID-19 outbreak.

"Keeping the game as healthy as possible is the ultimate responsibility of the players and everyone else," he said.

"So if that (the Boxing Day test) had to change for a year, I don't think it's going to be a big problem."

The Australians will play four practice matches in Derby before facing England in three T20s and three one-day internationals in Southampton and Manchester.