It took the coronavirus just 5 days to force international cricket into submission as the 1st ODI between Australia and New Zealand was played in front of empty stands – in the same week which saw 86,174 people turn up for the Women’s T20 World Cup final in Melbourne.
- Coronavirus has forced the cancellation/suspension of numerous cricket series over the past few days
- The IPL governing council will meet on Saturday to finalise the future of the coming edition
- Due to the virus, Australia and New Zealand played the 1st ODI in Sydney in an empty Sydney stadium
Just 5 days ago on Sunday, March 8, 86,174 people turned up to watch the Women’s T20 World Cup final between hosts Australia at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). It was the biggest crowd ever assembled to watch a women’s cricket match and was rightly hailed as a watershed moment for the sport. Cut to 5 days later, the Australian men’s team was playing an at the Sydney Cricket Ground – about 900 kilometers north-east of Melbourne. But apart from a fistful of media persons, groundstaff and the teams themselves, there wasn’t a single soul present in the 48,000-capacity stadium. The eerie silence was such that Australian opener David Warner didn’t even realise he had scored a 50 until he was reminded by his captain at the other end! What happened in these intervening 5 days, you ask? One word: coronavirus.
The novel Covid-19 which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 has claimed over 4,900 lives and infected more than 124,330 people worldwide. Not boasting to be the most woke of all sports, cricket has only started to get stirred and shaken by what the World Health Organization (WHO) is now calling a pandemic.
Since its outbreak, most discussions surrounding coronavirus in cricket have centered around easy-on-the-eyes stories revolving players opting to not shake hands with opposition players and carrying around more than enough stocks of hand sanitizers in their kits. But reality hit the game hard on Friday when the 1st ODI between Australia and New Zealand was played in front of a vacant stadium as Cricket Australia opted to play the series in-gates hoping to contain the spread of the virus.
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