COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc not only across the globe, but it also affected the sporting industry heavily. Amidst the outbreak of coronavirus, Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins feels they are “lucky” that cricket is not an out-an-out contact sport because if it would have been a contact sport the situation might have been different as well.
Australia were playing a three-match One Day International series against New Zealand where for the very first time they played in an empty stadium on Friday amid the outbreak of coronavirus which has so far taken more than 5000 lives. Australia convincingly beat New Zealand by 71 runs in the first ODI match on Friday before the second and third games have been postponed due to the increasing threat of coronavirus which has already infected more than 1,30,000 people around the world.
“We’re lucky in cricket that it’s not a contact sport, you can try and avoid getting too close to each other so no one really changed too much,” Pat Cummins was quoted as saying in cricket.au.com. “We were pretty clear on making sure nothing really affected the integrity of how we actually played and not changing anything about how we normally go about the game.”
The three T20 Internationals games between the two teams in New Zealand were also pushed back for the time being as New Zealand team returned home from their recent tour of Australia. Not only this, but COVID-19 has also affected the other cricket series across the globe. England and South Africa have called off their tours of Sri Lanka and India respectively as of now.
On the other hand, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has called off the India versus South Africa One Day International series and also postponed the upcoming season of the much-awaited cash-rich tournament Indian Premier League due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country. The board pushed back the start of this year’s IPL from March 29 to April 15. So far, 80 positive cases have been reported in India and amid the outbreak of coronavirus, if the IPL will take place, it can be dangerous for everyone.
