How coronavirus has affected cricket tournaments

How coronavirus has affected cricket tournaments: The “pandemic” has affected cricketing tournament is more ways than one.

When the Everest Premier League got postponed due to coronavirus threat, not many would have realized the looming consequences of the virus turning into a “pandemic”.

Perhaps things were yet to be taken seriously when the Road Safety World Series got postponed yesterday. With both these tournaments not featuring among the best cricketing tournaments involving high-profile names, fans still hoped for the major tournaments to find a way to be played as per schedule.

As few more hours passed yesterday, there was news of the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League being planned to be played behind closed doors especially post the guidelines issued by the Indian Sports Ministry. In what was the start of setbacks for the fans, things have successfully moved from bad to worse.

This morning started with Delhi Government announcing that Delhi won’t be allowed to host IPL 2020 matches. Soon enough, there was the massive update regarding the tournament getting postponed by more than two weeks.

Pakistan Super League, which is being played in totality in Pakistan for the first time, faced ramifications in the form of being played behind closed doors. Having said that, 10 of their overseas players have opted to return back to their respective countries.

The organisers have also announced a refurbished schedule for the tournament which will see it getting over four days before the original culminating date of March 22.

Among the international series, it was announced that South Africa’s tour of India and New Zealand’s tour of Australia will be played in empty stadiums of Lucknow, Kolkata, Sydney and Hobart.

While the remaining two ODIs of South Africa’s tour have been called off mutually by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and CSA (Cricket South Africa), Australia and New Zealand played a full match at the SCG today. At the time of writing this article, the Trans-Tasman series remains the only international series in operation as England’s imminent tour of Sri Lanka has also been called-off.

The last day of the final match of the ongoing edition of the Ranji Trophy between Saurashtra and Bengal in Rajkot was played in an empty stadium.

How coronavirus has affected cricket tournaments

1) Everest Premier League 2020 – Postponed to indefinite date.

2) Road Safety World Series 2020 – Postponed to indefinite date.

3) Pakistan Super League 2020 – Being played behind closed doors with rejigged schedule.

4) Indian Premier League 2020 – Postponed to April 15.

5) South Africa’s tour of India 2019-20 – Postponed to indefinite date.

6) New Zealand’s tour of Australia – Being played behind closed doors.

7) England’s tour of Sri Lanka 2020 – Postponed to indefinite date.

8) Irani Trophy 2020 – Status awaited.

Irani Trophy, a top-level First-class tournament in India played between winner of the Ranji Trophy (Saurashtra) and a Rest of India squad, is scheduled to be begin on March 18. While the venue regarding the same is not confirmed, it will be interesting to note the future of the one-off match.

With the last day of Ranji final being played behind closed doors, there are fair chances of the same happening from March 18 as well.