After the outbreak of coronavirus, many assigned games have been changed in the 2020 calendar. The deadly disease, which has killed over 3,100 people and infected over 90,000 globally, has wrecked havoc on the international calendar of various sporting events across the globe and has even put the upcoming Tokyo Olympics under doubt.
England tour of Sri Lanka with precautions
The England team set to play two ICC Test championship fixtures in Sri Lanka starting March 19. England captain Joe Root states that their team will not shake hands with Sri Lankan players due to the raise of coronavirus threat. But instead use fist bumps for greeting during their tour in Sri Lanka.
Joe Root addressed the media on Monday on the issue of coronavirus as his team prepared to leave for the island nation. Root revealed that illness is a key issue and the team does not want a repeat of the South African where a plethora of their cricketers suffered from gastroenteritis and flu problems.
“After the illnesses that swept through the squad in South Africa, we are well aware of the importance of keeping contact to a minimum and we’ve been given some really sound and sensible advice from our medical team to help prevent spreading germs and bacteria,” Joe Root said as quoted.
Root regards Hand shake
“We are not shaking hands with each other, using instead the well-established fist bump, and we are washing hands regularly and wiping down surfaces using the anti-bacterial wipes and gels we’ve been given in our immunity packs,” he added.
“There is no suggestion that the tour will be affected, but of course it is an evolving situation so we are in regular contact with the authorities and will proceed as advised, but at this stage we fully expect the tour to continue as planned,” he added.
Whitewash in 2018
Root also states that England team planned to whitewash the Sri Lanka in their home as in 2018. Where they whitewashed the Lankan’s in their own den [3-0].
“The conditions will be a bit different with the time of year we are going this time. The three games we played out there last time were all very close with less than 60 runs between the teams in the last two Tests.
“It was an exceptional performance last time and I think we can take a lot of confidence from that in terms of how to play out there. We respect how good a side they are in their own conditions and we’ll find ourselves up against a stiff challenge,” he added.
England will be it without their pace bowling spearheads in James Anderson, Jofra Archer, and Mark Wood- all of whom are grappling with an injury.
Coronavirus Outbreak in India
With few weeks away from Indian Premier League, out break of coronavirus in India threatens IPL fans. Indian Premier League has been set to begin from March 29 with an opening clash between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.
IPL fans start to get confused regards the postpone of the IPL series, as IPL match fixtures has been announced earlier. Regards this threat BCCI President Sourav Ganguly claims that “there is no threat to the Indian Premier League due to the novel coronavirus outbreak”
Source : au.sports.yahoo.com
