Coronavirus threatens world sport’s biggest events, ends handshake for England’s cricketers

The coronavirus outbreak has claimed one of its most significant sporting victims, with a host of events facing cancellation.

The coronavirus outbreak could impact Six Nations rugby, the Olympics and the Euro 2020 football tournament. Picture:

The coronavirus outbreak sweeping the world and threatening countless major events has claimed one of its most significant sporting victims, with the cricket handshake struck out.

With the Six Nations, Olympics, Euro 2020 among those events under threat, England’s cricketers — about to begin a tour of Sri Lanka — have announced they won’t be shaking hands.

Captain Joe Root says the Poms will instead greet each other with fist bumps.

The threat of illness is a sensitive issue for England, who were hit by gastro and flu problems during their recent tour of South Africa.

“After the illnesses that swept through the squad in South Africa, we are well aware of the importance of keeping contact to a minimum and we’ve been given some really sound and sensible advice from our medical team to help prevent spreading germs and bacteria,” Root said.

“We are not shaking hands with each other, using instead the well-established fist bump, and we are washing hands regularly and wiping down surfaces using the antibacterial wipes and gels we’ve been given in our immunity packs.

England cricket captain Joe Root won’t be shaking hands in Sri Lanka

“There is no suggestion that the tour will be affected, but of course it is an evolving situation so we are in regular contact with the authorities and will proceed as advised, but at this stage we fully expect the tour to continue as planned.”

The coronavirus continues to wreak havoc across the sporting landscape.

The Socceroos’ World Cup qualifying matches against Kuwait and Nepal this month may be postponed due to the virus.

The Socceroos’ World Cup qualifiers could be postponed. Picture: AAP

The Asian Football Confederation announced on Tuesday it would seek a meeting with FIFA to discuss the status of World Cup qualifiers for March and June.

The AFC said a “growing number” of national teams were either unable to stage matches or travel to venues with heightened health concerns and travel restrictions in place due to the virus outbreak. The Socceroos are set to host Kuwait in Perth on March 26 before travelling to Kathmandu to play Nepal on March 31.

European soccer body UEFA says decisions over whether to cancel matches, including playoffs for the upcoming Euro 2020, due to the coronavirus, will be made by governments and health authorities and not the game’s ruling organisations.

UEFA executives met early on Tuesday but spent only a few minutes discussing the spread of the virus.

The coronavirus has played havoc with domestic soccer in Italy where Sunday’s clash between Juventus and Inter Milan was among six weekend games postponed.

Last week, Inter played Bulgarian club Ludogorets in the Europa League behind closed doors at their San Siro stadium.

“We’re in touch with the authorities, we’re in the hands of the local authorities, and we’ll deal with whatever they tell us,” a UEFA spokesman said. “There wasn’t much discussion about it because there is not much we can do about it … it’s in the hands of those people who were experts in the situation.”

The Tokyo Olympics remains under threat, with the IOC’s Dick Pound intimating a final decision on whether the event will be held could be put off until late May.

The remaining games of rugby’s Six Nations Championship will, subject to future government intervention, go ahead, despite the postponement of Ireland’s match with Italy.

There had been fears that the games on March 14 between Italy and England in Rome and France and Ireland in Paris would be called off.

But representatives of the Six Unions and championship officials met in Paris and agreed that the two matches and the other games in England, Scotland and Wales over the final two rounds of the competition would go ahead.

“As it stands today, based on the latest information, all Six Nations matches currently scheduled are set to go ahead,” Six Nations said in a statement.