Since its origin from the city of Wuhan in China, the COVID-19 Conoravirus slowly found its way into other countries around the globe. Till now, there are over 130,000 positive cases of the virus, and almost 5000 people have died, as the WHO recently declared the outbreak as pandemic. The virus spread has also left a massive impact in the world of sports, from players getting infected to entire teams put under quarantine. Below here are several major sporting events have taken a hit from the Coronavirus outbreak.
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Football:
The sports that has a fan base of more than half the human population, was quick to become a big victim of the virus outbreak. It started with empty stadiums, and after the positive Tests of Juventus centre back Daniele Rugani and Hanover 96 defender Timo Hübers, the beautiful game took a massive hit from the pandemic.
Serie A saw its cancellation for the first time since the Second World War. and La Liga followed up with a suspension of all of its matches, after Real Madrid put its whole first team in quarantine.
Major League Soccer also recently announced a 30 day halt on all of its matches, and a number of English Premier League matches have also been indefinitely postponed, after Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was tested positive. Additionally, all Champions League matches that were supposed to take place next week were suspended by UEFA.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers that were to take place between 23rd to 31st March have also been postponed.
Australia’s top tier football competition, the A-League, which was planned to continue amidst the virus outbreak, has now been suspended indefinitely by its governing body Football Federation Australia (FFA).
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Basketball:
The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced the suspension of its 2019-20 season yesterday, following a positive virus contamination of a player. Before the face off between Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, Rudy Gobert, who plays as a centre for Utah Jazz, was tested positive, and the medical report arrived just before the start of the match.
The game was called off as soon as possible, and soon after the NBA released a statement revealing the cancellation of the current season.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCA) also dropped their men’s Division I basketball tournament named “March Madness” following NBA’s decision. NCCA has also suspended a number of winter and spring championships.
Europe’s top tier basketball division the EuroLeague faced cancellation after a player from Real Madrid’s basketball team ‘Real Madrid Baloncesto’ was tested positive.
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Cricket:
The 2020 IPL season was primarily decided to inaugurate on its usual date on 29th March, along with necessary precautions. However, the blockbuster cricket tournament is now postponed to April 15.
The India vs South Africa ODI series has also been postponed, after the first match at Dharamshala was whitewashed due to rain yesterday. England’s tour of Sri Lanka was also called off today.
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Hockey:
The National Hockey League (NHL) of North America yesterday announced the immediate suspension of its 2019-20 season. The official statement came from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who suspects some NHL players or staff may be contaminated. The Canadian Hockey League has also cancelled its major junior hockey leagues. Yesterday, the CHL officially announced halting the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League and the Western Hockey League.
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Tennis:
The ATP Tour has postponed all of its fixtures until the end of April. This effectively means the cancellation of all the men’s ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour tournaments which were supposed to take place in the next six weeks.
In addition to that, all WTA and ITF events have also been postponed until April 20th. On Thursday, the Miami Open was cancelled, followed by the Indian Wells and the Fed Cup Finals and Play-Offs getting postponed.
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Athletics:
The 2020 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing were originally supposed to be held in Nanjing from 13th to 15th March, but has now been pushed back for a year by its governing body World Athletics.
The Tokyo Marathon on 1st March was restricted to the elite runners and wheelchair athletes only. One of the largest marathon runs in the world, where 38000 runners were supposed to take part, happened with only around 200 participants in streets lacking spectators.
The European Boxing Olympic qualifiers in London was first planned to go ahead without spectators, but now has been paused on and from 16th March amidst the virus situation in England.
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Golf:
On Thursday, the PGA Tour cancelled The Players Championship currently ongoing in Florida, the US state which has registered 29 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2 deaths. PGA also suspended all its upcoming tournaments and and all events, through the Valero Texas Open, which was supposed to run till 5th April.
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Baseball:
The Major League Baseball (MLB) on Thursday officially postponed its opening day from 26th March to at least two weeks, along with cancelling the remainder of its spring training matches.
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Formula 1:
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of Formula 1 announced today the cancellation of its Australian Grand Prix, and have also postponed the Chinese Grand Prix, which was supposed to take place in April. Baharain and Vietnam GPs were also called off.
On 20th March, F1’s flagship Monaco Grand Prix, after an official confirmation from Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM).
The 2019-20 Formula E season was also postponed by the FIA.
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Cycling:
Several cyclists that participated in the UAE Tour from 23rd to 29th February were tested positive of COVID-19.
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Snooker:
The 2020 The Coral Tour Championship, originally planned to start on 17th March, have been now postponed with provisional inaugural date of 21st July.
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Darts:
The ongoing 2020 Premier League Darts tournament’s double header dates were pushed back to September by the governing body Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
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Rugby:
The PRO14, the annual rugby tournament consisting of teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa and Wales announced its cancellation yesterday over the virus pandemic. The competition was supposed to start from 20th March.
Four matches of the Six Nations tournament, Italy vs England, Ireland vs Italy, France vs Ireland and Wales vs Scotland- were all postponed.
The Betfred Super League and Challenge Cup fixtures were also cancelled.
