• Coronavirus: Premier League, NBA, F1 – when are suspended competitions aiming to return?

    Elite-level sport has come to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic. We look at when the Premier League, NBA and others are hoping to return.
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    The world’s leading sporting competitions have been halted amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    With almost 160,000 confirmed cases of the virus and close to 6,000 deaths, athletes across the globe are waiting to learn when they will return to work.

    We take a look at the provisional return dates set out so far.
     

    BASKETBALL

    The NBA came to a sudden stop when a Utah Jazz player – later revealed to be Rudy Gobert – tested positive on Wednesday, and league commissioner Adam Silver warned the hiatus would “be most likely at least 30 days“.

    CRICKET

    International cricket has been pushed back, but there are no firm dates as things stand for rescheduled matches. England’s two-match Test tour of Sri Lanka was called off midway through a warm-up match, while the ODI series between India and South Africa was postponed after the first of three matches was washed out. Australia won an opening ODI against New Zealand behind closed doors, but the remaining two 50-over matches were delayed, along with a three-match Twenty20 series. There is at least a provisional date for the Indian Premier League to belatedly start: April 15, pushed back from March 29.

    FOOTBALL

    European football is at a standstill, with the Champions League among the elite-level competitions suspended. UEFA is set to meet to discuss the future of that tournament and Euro 2020 this week, while FIFA has advised postponements of upcoming international fixtures, for which clubs are no longer required to release their players. The Premier League, LaLiga and Serie A are all paused at least until April 3 although the Bundesliga has only called off one matchweek as things stand, while Ligue 1 is off “until further notice“.

    GOLF

    The PGA Tour initially announced a three-week suspension, with The Players Championship stopped after its opening round. The Masters – won in 2019 by Tiger Woods – was therefore set to mark the Tour’s return on April 9, but organisers soon announced the first major of the year would also be postponed. The RBC Heritage on April 16 is the next scheduled tournament. Organisers are planning “regular status updates in the coming weeks” amid “a very fluid situation that requires constant review, communication, and transparency”.

    MOTORSPORT

    The Formula One season is still to start after races in Australia, Bahrain, Vietnam and China were postponed or cancelled. The Dutch Grand Prix on May 3 remains on at this stage, however, while managing director of motorsports Ross Brawn has suggested the calendar could be reshuffled, with races held in August. NASCAR has postponed events in Atlanta and Miami this and next weekend, and all IndyCar Series races through April have been cancelled.

    RUGBY

    Rugby league has largely been able to continue both in England and in Australia, but the same is not true of rugby union. Six Nations matches were among the first to fall by the wayside amid the crisis in Italy, with the Azzurri seeing matches against both Ireland and England postponed until later in the year. France versus Ireland was off, too, while Scotland’s trip to Wales belatedly followed suit. Club action has ground to a halt, with Super Rugby finally paused this weekend and no return imminent.

    TENNIS

    After Indian Wells and then the Miami Open were cancelled, the ATP Tour announced its suspension up to and including the week of April 20. The WTA Tour preferred to call off individual events, but the schedule is now clear for five weeks. It was still to make a decision on the European clay-court season. The Fed Cup finals and play-offs – set for mid-April – have been pushed back, meanwhile, with the ITF vowing to address any impact the postponement may have on players’ eligibility for Tokyo 2020.

    OTHERS

    Despite chaos surrounding various sports across the globe, Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe says the country is still planning for the Olympic Games in Tokyo to go ahead as scheduled in July. The London Marathon and the Boston Marathon will both still go ahead this year, but with revised dates of October 4 and September 14, respectively. The Giro d’Italia will be postponed and a new date for the race will not be announced until at least April 3 when a decree in Italy banning sport ends. The NBA is not the only American competition to be disrupted, meanwhile, with the 2020 MLB season moved back “at least two weeks” from March 26, and the NHL campaign paused indefinitely.

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