Road Safety World Series to be played in empty DY Patil stadium amid growing Coronavirus threat

The last few months have seen a lot of big-ticket events all over the globe either getting cancelled, rescheduled or being moved behind closed doors due to the rapid spread of Coronavirus. And, joining the parade of these events is cricket tournament called the Road Safety World Series that is being played in Mumbai.

The tournament has seen participation from legendary cricketers across the globe, and the fans have been flocking in big numbers to the Wankhede and DY Patil Cricket Stadium in Mumbai to see them play. But, at this time, any public gathering could prove to be really dangerous. And, it was being anticipated that this might affect the tournament.

According to Sportstar, in a late-night decision on Wednesday, it was announced that the remaining matches at the DY Patil Stadium will be played behind closed doors. This means that no one except the players, the team management and the required staff from the ground maintenance and other important officials will be allowed to enter the stadium while the match is being played.

There are still two matches scheduled to be played at the venue and the fans will not be able to witness any of those from the stands. One of the matches was to be played on the 13th of March between the South Africa Legends and the Sri Lanka Legends. And, the other one was scheduled on the 19th of March, between the teams from Australia and South Africa. While the details regarding the broadcast are still not out, there are chances that the matches will be shown on live television.

Four Pune games called off

Meanwhile, the four games of the tournament scheduled to be played in Pune have been called off. Though there is no confirmation yet if those matches also will be played in Mumbai behind closed doors. As far as playing in empty stadiums is concerned, the players themselves will be missing the immense support and the silence in the stadium would definitely come to prick them.

But steps like these need to be taken in order to prevent the spread of the disease. Even the India-South Africa series which is set to commence on Thursday will not witness any handshakes between the players