Tim Paine, the Australian Test skipper, on Wednesday (March 18) left a wonderful message for the nation's cricket community on the behalf of Cricket Australia amid "testing times" in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
CA has already either postponed or cancelled all the remaining international and domestic fixtures for the home summer to tackle the pandemic.
Read Also: Australia cancels Sheffield Shield amid fears of coronavirus spread
"There's no doubt this has been a big week for our cricket community, a really big time for Australians," Paine could be heard saying in a video message. "Some decisions have been made in the best interest of our country, and its most vulnerable people. Those decisions were certainly not made lightly and have been made on the best possible advice from our government and from health experts."
"One of those decisions has been to cancel all cricket (for the season) and I realise that's tough but it's something we should all take very seriously," added the wicketkeeper batsman, who felt the pain of missing out on the opportunity to try and lift the Sheffield Shield title with Tasmania.
The Shield, country's premier domestic first-class competition, has been cancelled for the very first time since the second world war, with New South Wales declared champions for topping the points table after nine rounds of games.
"I would've loved to play for Tasmania right now with the hunt for the Sheffield Shield final and there's no doubt our Australian Men's team would've loved to be in Hobart trying to win the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, and certainly our female (T20) world champion team would love to be in South Africa," said Paine also on the suspension of the Men's series against New Zealand and the women's team tour to face the Proteas.
"But, as hard as it is for all the cricketers, I think it is time to take a break. I know it's even harder this time of the year when you've got finals and trophies are on the line, and it's all there to be won. But this is bigger than us, bigger than the game of cricket"
"I hope we are all back playing the game we love and going about our lives the way we want to as soon as possible, but in the meantime, please take of yourselves, take care of others and ride this out together," Paine concluded.
