Coronavirus in sports: How Covid-19 pandemic has impacted major sports events across the globe

Coronavirus: How Covid-19 pandemic has impacted major sports events across the globe

New Delhi, May 26: Sporting activities across the globe have come to a grinding halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has infected more than 5 million people and claimed over 347,000 lives so far.

In the wake of the deadly pandemic, global as well as national sports bodies have either postponed or cancelled the events to ensure the safety of athletes as well as the spectators. While some sporting action is returning in some parts of the world as governments in a few countries have allowed hosting games in stadiums behind closed doors. There is still a large section which has been severely impacted by the pandemic and it will take another couple of months for the administrations there to slowly resume sporting activities.

Here we take a look at the major sporting activities which have been impacted severely by the coronavirus pandemic.

Cricket

# The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 was initially suspended till April 15, but the domestic T20 league in India was later postponed indefinitely.

# England's ambitious The Hundred was originally scheduled to start on July 17. But it was pushed to 2021.

# The last two games of Australia's three-match one-day international series against New Zealand in Sydney and Hobart were cancelled while the limited-overs tours were postponed.

# India and South Africa agreed to reschedule a three-match ODI series to a later date after the first ODI was washed out due to rain the remaining two matches were suspended due to the pandemic outbreak.

# England's Test series against Sri Lanka and West Indies were postponed. The England and Wales Cricket Board extended the suspension of the professional game in the country until July 1.

# South Africa's limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka that was scheduled to take place in June has been postponed.

# Australia's proposed tour of Bangladesh for a Test series in June has been postponed.

# Ireland's home series against New Zealand and Pakistan scheduled for June and July have been postponed.

# PCB agreed to a Test and T20 tour of England in July but will not force players to agree for the assignment should they have reservations owing to the pandemic.

Badminton

According to the revised BWF calendar, the season will restart with Hyderabad Open on August 11-16.

# Syed Modi International will be held in Lucknow from November 17-22.

# India Open Super 500 will now be held between December 8 and 13 in New Delhi.

# China Open Super 1000 - September 15-20 in Changzhou

# Japan Open Super 750 - September 22-27 in Tokyo

# Thomas and Uber Cup Finals - October 3-11 in Aarhus

# Denmark Open Super 750 - October 13-18 in Odense

# French Open Super 750 - October 20-25 in Paris

# China Open Super 750 - November 3-8 in Fuzhou

# Hong Kong Open Super 500 - November 10-15

# Indonesia Open Super 1000 - November 17-22 in Jakarta

# Malaysia Open Super 750 - November 24-29 in Kuala Lumpur

# Thailand Open Super 500 - December 1-6 in Bangkok

# World Tour Finals - December 16-20 in Guangzhou

Football

# FIFA has agreed to delay the first edition of its revamped Club World Cup due to be held in 2021.

# UEFA put all club and national team competitions for men and women on hold until further notice.

# The men's and women's Champions League finals and Europa League final originally scheduled for May have been postponed.

# South America's two biggest club competitions, the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana are suspended.

# CONCACAF suspended all competitions, including the Champions League and men's Olympic qualifiers.

# Asian and South American qualifying matches for 2022 World Cup were postponed.

# Japan's J.League will not hold any games in May.

# Barcelona's women's team were declared champions of Spain's Liga Iberdrola after the national soccer federation's executive committee agreed to end all non-professional competitions.

# The Asian Football Confederation on April 14 postponed all matches and competitions scheduled for May-June until further notice.

# Semi-finals of the CAF Champions League (May 1-3) and CAF Confederation Cup (May 8-10) were postponed.

# International Champions Cup, a pre-season tournament featuring Europe's top clubs, was cancelled.

# Cameroon cancelled the rest of its league season and declared leaders PWD Bamenda as champions.

# Wales' top-flight league was called off and Connah's Quay Nomads were crowned champions.

# Mexico cancelled the remainder of its men's and women's seasons. No champions will be crowned.

# England's Women's Super League and second-tier Women's Championship seasons were cancelled on May 25.

Olympics/Paralympics:

# The postponed Tokyo Olympic Games will now begin on July 23, 2021 and run until Aug. 8.

# World Athletics has suspended Olympic qualification until December.

# The postponed Paralympic Games will run from Aug. 24-Sep. 5, 2021.

Athletics

# The World Athletics Championships scheduled for 2021 in Eugene, Oregon has been moved to the summer of 2022 because of the Olympic Games rescheduling.

# The World Athletics Indoor Championships (Nanjing, March 13-15) were postponed to March 19-21, 2021.

# The Diamond League, the elite track and field competition, was forced to cancel its London meeting scheduled for July 4-5. It had previously postponed events in seven cities scheduled between April and June.

# The Paris and Barcelona marathons were postponed.

# The 2020 European Athletics Championship due to take place from Aug. 25-30 were cancelled.

Tennis

# The French Open was postponed until Sept. 20-Oct. 4.

# The Wimbledon championships were cancelled for the first time since World War Two.

# The Fed Cup finals (Budapest; April 14-19) were postponed.

# The Sept. 25-27 Laver Cup was cancelled to avoid a clash with the re-scheduled French Open.

# ATP events in Hamburg, Bastad, Newport, Los Cabos, Gstaad, Umag, Atlanta and Kitzbuhel will not go ahead as scheduled while WTA events in Bastad, Lausanne, Bucharest and Jurmala scheduled for July will not be held.

# The women's Rogers Cup tournament in Montreal was postponed until 2021.

# Professional tennis returned with the Tennis Point Exhibition Series event in Germany on May 1.

# Hubert Hurkacz, Miomir Kecmanovic, Reilly Opelka and Tommy Paul took part in the UTR Pro Match Series in Florida that began on May 8.

# Patrick Mouratoglou's tennis academy in France will host a five-week series starting in May.

# Bianca Andreescu and Sofia Kenin will be among 16 WTA players who will launch the Credit One Bank Invitational in Charleston on June 23.

# Novak Djokovic is bringing together some of the world's top tennis players for a series of matches to run from June 13-July 5 in the Balkan region.

# New Zealand will stage a team-based tennis tournament for local-based men's players from June 3.

# Petra Kvitova will headline an all-Czech tournament in Prague starting on May 26 without spectators.

Story first published: Wednesday, May 27, 2020, 9:53 [IST]

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Coronavirus: How Covid-19 pandemic has impacted major sports events across the globe

Sporting activities across the globe have come to a grinding halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has infected more than 5 million people and claimed over 347,000 lives so far.