As the number of cases of coronavirus crossed 80 in India, cricket team captain Virat Kohli tweeted a message to his fans on Saturday asking them to stay safe and take care. "Let's stay strong and fight the #COVID19 outbreak by taking all precautionary measures," Kohli tweeted. "Stay safe, be vigilant and most importantly remember, prevention is better than cure," he added and signed off by saying "Please take care everyone." His tweet comes a day after India's ODI series against South Africa was called off.
Kohli's India teammate KL Rahul also tweeted about the pandemic. "In these testing times let's stay strong and care for each other. Urging everyone to follow the instructions given by health experts and stay safe," he tweeted.
The coronavirus pandemic has majorly impacted cricket, just like all other sports. On Friday, the BCCI announced that the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 was postponed from March 29 to April 15.
"First priority is safety, so we postponed the games," BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said after the IPL was postponed.
The two remaining matches in the India-South Africa series, which were supposed to be played behind closed doors, were also called off.
"Cricket South Africa will visit India at a later date to play three One-day Internationals. The BCCI-CSA will jointly work out the revised schedule," Board Secretary Jay Shah said.
The last day of the Ranji Trophy final, which Saurashtra won after beating Bengal, was also played behind closed doors.
The disease has claimed the lives of over 4000 people across the globe, with two deaths reported in India so far.