The schedule has been changed of the ongoing Road Safety World Series where the rest of the games will be played behind closed doors at the DY Patil Stadium. This will be starting from March 13 when South Africa Legends will take on Sri Lanka Legends in a changed schedule. The decision was taken after the massive outbreak of the coronavirus across the globe, to protect all the players’ health and safety along with the staff and spectators as well.
Due to the outrage of COVID-19 that has been taking a toll across the globe, the number of cases has been increasing day by day including Maharashtra. Hence, the organising committee has decided that the third match of the series, which was scheduled to be played in Pune from March 14 to 20, 2020, be rescheduled to DY Patil Stadium and the games will be played behind closed doors along with the rest of the games at the same venue and the final as well.
However, all the stake-holders agreed that “they will continue to monitor the situation closely with the relevant authorities as they understand that it is a fluid situation, developing daily and they remain realistic and flexible in their approach to alternative options, which will be communicated in due course”.
Notably, most of the cricket tournaments across the world have been affected by the outrageous coronavirus threat. The Bangladesh Cricket Board have taken a great decision as they have limited their sale of tickets for the opening T20 international match against Zimbabwe in Dhaka to one per person due to the threat posed by the dangerous coronavirus. While Nepal’s Everest Premier League has been postponed on government advice, the ICC has decided to delay a World Cup qualifying event as well.
There have been questions on players’ participation on the Asia XI vs World XI amidst this threat which was decided to celebrate the 100 years of the birth of the legendary of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman – who is referred to as the father of the Bengali nation. Along with this, there is a question mark on whether the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played despite BCCI president Sourav Ganguly’s assurances that the tournament will be played as per the schedule.
