These are depressing times for everyone. None more so than for sports fans as events around the world continue to be called off by the hour due to the unabated spread of coronavirus.
One of the latest casualties of Covid-19 is the Australian Grand Prix, which was scheduled to flag off the new Formula One season tomorrow.
The immensely popular National Basketball Association (NBA) has also been suspended and Utah Jazz now have two confirmed cases of Covid-19 on their roster.
The NBA announced it was putting off its season after a Jazz player, Rudy Gobert, tested positive for the virus shortly before the start off their Wednesday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The game was called off in an abrupt manner at the last minute.
Later, the Jazz said in a statement: "As a follow-up to yesterday's [Wednesday's] positive Covid-19 test, Oklahoma health officials tested all members of the Utah Jazz travelling party, confirming one additional positive outcome for a Jazz player."
Media reports suggested the second victim of the virus was Donovan Mitchell.
WIDESPREAD DAMAGE
It isn't just one sport or two that have been affected.
The Miami Open, one of the top tennis tournaments in the United States, was cancelled last week. It was scheduled to take place from March 23-April 5, with top players of the world being confirmed entries.
Big-earners -- Serena Williams, Sofia Kenin, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer just to name a few -- would all have to wait either at their mansions or practice facilities until the end of April before they could get down to business of winning titles again. All men's tennis events have called off till April 27 and women's tennis governing body is unlikely to try anything different.
A number of golf events have also been affected and there is a strong likelihood that these won't reappear on the sport's international calendar for the year.
Football, the most popular sport in the world, is also among the victims. Matches have been postponed amidst talks of entire leagues being called off without any side lifting the cups across Europe and elsewhere.
All Uefa competitions, including Champions League and Europa League matches due to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday, have been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
TOKYO OLYMPICS
The most burning question on the sports fans' minds around the globe is whether or not the 2020 Olympic Games will take place in Japan from July 24-Aug 9 as scheduled?
At this point of time, there is no absolute answer to the query.
The Olympic flame lighting ceremony in Greece was held without spectators on Thursday, marking the start of the traditional torch relay.
However, this was followed by an unexpected suggestion from US President Donald Trump that Games should be delayed by a year or so rather than being held at empty venues.
Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, has insisted that the Games are on course to begin in late July, but the tone of some of the leading officials of the Japanese organising committee has changed considerably during the course of this week.
Trump was quoted as saying that he preferred postponing the Games to holding the events with no spectators. "Maybe they postpone it for a year. Maybe that's not possible," added the US president.
But Trump was quick to make a U-turn during a phone call with Japanese Prime Minister Shinso Abe.
During the talk, Trump praised Tokyo's Olympic preparations and their "magnificent" venue.
LOCAL SCENE
In Thailand, there have also been a number of high-profile casualties, with the postponement of the Thailand MotoGP race in Buri Ram and the decision to put the domestic football leagues on hold until after mid-April topping the list.
The Thailand Grand Prix in Buri Ram attracted huge crowds in the past two years. Pattarapong Chatpattarasill
The Thailand Grand Prix, the most-attended event on the MotoGP calendar for two years in a row in 2018 and 2019, has been rescheduled to be contested on Oct 4 and the Thai League 1 returns on April 18.
Also affected were the Thailand national team's Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup which were due to be staged this month and in June.
While it is too early to be optimistic about a quick resumption of the Thai League 1 hostilities, this usavoury hiatus caused by the unfortunate coronavirus outbreak does present one man with an excellent opportunity to build up on his recent mixed-but-somewhat-successful results.
Thailand football coach Akira Nishino.
Thailand football coach Akira Nishino has messed up his team selections on a handful of occasions and has openly admitted his mistakes a few times.
One can't actually blame Nishino for this as the veteran coach, who has the distinction of taking his native Japan to the 2018 World Cup last 16 round in Russia, hasn't had much opportunity to be with the Thai players.
With the league matches on hold, the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) can negotiate with the clubs for the release of some of the top footballers in the country to undergo training under Nishino.
The way these Thai training camps are organised, presence of team's medical staff and secluded nature of their training sites are unlikely to put these players at a bigger risk of contacting the Covid-19 virus than they already are at their clubs.
After all, the Kingdom's athletes from different disciplines are all getting on with their training regimes for the Tokyo Games as announced by the Sports Authority of Thailand on Thursday.
This should allow Nishino to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of his players better to get his future line-ups right.
May be this would help him bring the the best out of young players like Supachok Sarachart, Supachai Jaided, Suppanut Muenta, and a number of others who have largely been living under the shadow of foreign players at their clubs.
And may be this would allow the players to get to know each other better, read each other's body language better so there are no longer any complaints of a lack of understanding among the team members during key battles.
And may be -- just may be -- this would help the Thais realise their dream of making it to the final stages of the World Cup finals in the not too distant future.
