As COVID19 causes chaos and catastrophe, countries have declared national lockdown and many have restricted huge gatherings and masses. Various sports across the globe are being played without audience or deferred or suspended.
These measures have been taken as a precaution to control the spread of the virus. Also, a few events have been suspended because of the players being tested positive for the pandemic.
Olympics, Olympic trials, NBA, Indian Premier League, Motorsport, football events and a lot more events have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
FOOTBALL
Several football leagues worldwide were suspended or postponed for a later date.
The Premier League, Football League (EFL), Women’s Super League (WSL) and all other elite football matches in England were suspended until 4 April.
The remaining matches of I-League are to be played in empty stadiums. The Union of European Football Association (UEFA) have postponed all Champions League matches that were originally scheduled to take place next week.
The National League - the fifth-tier of English football has announced that all its weekend matches will be played. French Ligue 1 and 2 and German Bundesliga 1 and 2 were called off. FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation have agreed to postpone Asian World Cup qualifying matches in March and June. Various other football matches have also been cancelled.
CRICKET
The ongoing one-day series between Australia and New Zealand is being held without fans. The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 has been postponed to 15 April. It was earlier scheduled to begin on 29 March. England cancelled their Test series in Sri Lanka. The remaining ODIs in India vs South Africa series were called off on Friday. Cricket Australia suspended the final round of the Sheffield Shield, the country’s top first-class league. The board has not yet taken a call on the final. The Australia women’s tour to South Africa has been deferred to an indefinite date.
BASKETBALL
The National Basketball Association (NBA), men’s professional basketball league in North America has suspended its season after a player got tested positive for coronavirus. They had earlier considered playing games without fans. However, they suspended the season following the news of Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert being tested positive for coronavirus. They said that close contact makes coronavirus a concern for the rest of the league.
EuroCup, Euroleague Next Generation Tournament games and all 2019-20 Euroleague games were suspended by Euroleague Basketball.
OLYMPICS TO BE HELD AS PLANNED
Though there are talks on Tokyo Olympics 2020 being held, few Olympic events were altered to manage the situation.
The Olympics torch lighting ceremony was conducted without spectators and the Torch relay was cancelled by The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) in order to avoid attracting crowds.
The Olympic trials in the US were postponed. The trials for wrestling which were earlier scheduled for 4-5 April were put off for a later time. US Rowing and diving trials were also deferred.
The International Olympics Committee and the host nation Japan are confident that the Tokyo Olympics will go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic. If Tokyo Olympics 2020 is called off, it will be the first cancellation of Olympic games ever since the World War II.
BADMINTON
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has decided to halt all events from 16 March until 12 April. On Friday, owing to this announcement, the Indian Open badminton tournament was suspended at least till 12 April.
OTHER SPORTS
The London, Paris and Barcelona marathons have been postponed. The World Athletics Indoor Championships have been postponed until next year. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has announced that the events in Mexico and Columbia will not be held. In Tennis, the Miami Open, BNB Paribas Open, Xi’an Open and Kunming Open had been cancelled. Two World Rowing Cups scheduled for Italy were cancelled. In Table Tennis, the world championships in South Korea were deferred from March to June. The International Judo Federation has cancelled all Olympic qualification events until 30 April. All events in boxing scheduled for March in Japan have been cancelled. Other sporting events including cycling, golf, baseball, handball, ice hockey, motor sports, gymnastics, squash, winter sports, sailing, rowing and rugby were also either pushed back or suspended.
The coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the globe and the sporting world has been very quick and responsible. Halting several games have reduced the number of mass gatherings and thus has decreased the spread of the virus as well.
