Sunil Gavaskar, former India captain, and eminent commentator feel that no live action on the ground for the coming 4-5 months will be hard on fans of the game of cricket. The Coronavirus pandemic has brought all sporting action everywhere on the planet to a halt.

"The way things are going we might not be able to see any live sport for maybe 4-5 months. That's gonna be tough not just on the current players but also those who follow the sport," Gavaskar opined while talking to India Today.

He felt that fans may keep themselves busy with watching old matches on TV or the internet for time being and nostalgia's sake, but unless live action begins, it will be very difficult for them to cope with this vacuum.

BCCI official says "T20 World Cup in October seems impractical" due to COVID-19 pandemic

"There are so many fans of different sports. for them to be able to only look at the old action after a time it gets boring, for nostalgia you can go back and see what happened earlier but actually you wanna see live sport be it on tv or ground and for that not being able to be seen till September that's a worrying thing and I am pretty certain that the officials of all the sports and are planning plan a, b, c to get over this period of uncertainty," Gavaskar asserted.

There are talks of holding the IPL 2020 and even the ICC T20 World Cup behind closed doors with no crowd in the stadiums. However, the 1983 World Cup winner felt that such action should be the last resort.

He said, "I think that's gonna be absolutely the last resort otherwise you know when you can't have absolutely anyone at the ground only then you should play without crowds. Every performer likes to perform in front of a crowd which appreciates the skills and temperament. Same in theatre. So i think it's not going to be easy on the performers as well. Players also want to do the high fives and hugs."

(indiatoday inputs)