The Coronavirus pandemic has brought all cricket to a halt everywhere.
The pandemic has affected more than one million two hundred thousand people with more than 65,000 losing their lives to it. With many countries locking down their borders and suspending all travel even within districts and cities in order to stop the transmission of the virus from humans to humans.
Mumbai Police uses MS Dhoni's 2011 World Cup winning shot to spread awareness against Coronavirus
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 and many bilateral series had to be postponed, including the final stages of the PSL 5 as well. Australia and New Zealand played one ODI behind closed doors and PSL also held some matches in empty stadiums and it remains to be seen what changes the deadly pandemic has brought onto cricket.
Keeping this in mind, Team COC presents to you the five possible scenarios and ways cricket may see changes in the post- COVID-19 world.
Here are the 5 ways cricket may change in the post-coronavirus world
No handshakes post-match
AUS v NZ 2020: WATCH - "No Handshake zone" as opponents clap for each other
Touching elbows were also seen when the match ended and players from both sides met. This may become a norm in the coming times, when cricket returns in post-COVID 19 world, as players might want to keep themselves safe from touching one another, given that it is a way to spread Coronavirus.
Also, the teams clapped for each other after the game got over, instead of following the tradition of shaking hands.
Closed doors
Justin Langer bats for cricket behind closed doors amid COVID-19 pandemic
There was even one positive case of COVID-19 found in the thousands that attended the final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Maharashtra state government, along with Karnataka and other states refused to host matches for the IPL 2020 before it was suspended till 15th April.
However, we might not see fans enjoying the game, even when it resumes in the coming months, as cricket boards would opt to bring the game back in empty stadiums, in order to keep the fans from getting affected by the deadly virus.
Even Australia coach Justin Langer has urged to resume the game behind closed doors to keep both the players and fans safe.
Health checks and Sanitization for fans
"Sportsman don't need crowd to be spurred on" - Ian Chappell on cricket behind closed doors
One such way this could be done is by checking the temperatures of the fans before entering the stadium and while exiting. This should be done alongside sanitizing them by the way of putting up a tunnel through which they need to enter the venue, in which they are sprayed with a sanitizing solution. This has to be done while going in and coming out of the matches.
As they say, precaution is better than cure.
No saliva on the ball
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The virus stays alive in the saliva and is spread by people coughing and sneezing. If the droplets in the air enter other people via mouth or nose, one is affected by the virus. Therefore, using the saliva on the ball to shine it becomes a big no-no and the ICC and players themselves will forego this practice for the foreseeable future to keep themselves and others safe.
Social distancing
The biggest mantra that this pandemic has given us is ‘social distancing’. This is due to the fact that the virus doesn’t have a range of more than 6 feet to travel in the air. Hence the medical experts have asked the citizens to stay keep atleast that much distance between them while going out for shopping or buying other essentials.
This will also be practiced when the crowd returns to the stadiums once the pandemic dies out a little. No longer will one witness packed stadiums despite the capacity to do so as the boards might be forced to fill them less may be up to 70% of their capacity so that the social distancing can be maintained. This might cause a loss in revenue for many big stadiums, but human life comes paramour than anything else.