Coronavirus: Veterans Cricket WC comes to abrupt cancellation

KARACHI: Coronavirus has brought about the abrupt cancellation of the Veterans (Over-50s) Veterans Cricket World Cup Tournament 2020 which was being staged in and around Cape Town, South Africa.

According to the information made available by the Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA), the organising committee and World Cup ambassador, Barry Richards, a former South African batting great, took the decision during the course of the third round of matches, which were then abandoned after the first innings, on Sunday.

Sparkling centuries by opener Sajid Ali (124 off 140 balls) and Muhammad Javed (133 off 84 balls) had put Pakistan in a commanding position as they posted a mammoth score of 321 for two in the allotted 45 overs against Wales. But the match was called off before Pakistan could take the field to defend the huge total.

The first innings in other five matches had also been completed at which point it was decided to stop them following the decision taken by the organizing committee and the tournament was declared cancelled with immediate effect because of the Covid-19 virus.

Canada were taking on West Indies, England was taking on Namibia, Sri Lanka was confronting Australia, Zimbabwe was playing New Zealand and South Africa was tackling India at a time when Pakistan was pitted against Wales. "The decision was taken for the protection of the players, given their age demographic but also for the local population given that 95% of known cases in South African have come from travellers. It is a public health risk decision," the head of the tournament's medical committee, Dr Parag Pandya, announced. "The decision was taken by the organising and medical committees but it is fully endorsed by the sponsors. There was a great desire to continue but, in the end, it became apparent that cancellation was the right thing to do," Evergreen Lifestyle’s spokesperson Arthur Case added. Seven of the 11 visiting teams had been staying in the same Cape Town hotel where appropriate precautions were taken and they were to remain the same until arrangements were made for their repatriation. Pakistan, who finished runners-up in the inaugural tournament a couple of years ago in Australia, was unbeaten in the tournament, having overpowered Namibia and India in their earlier games and they were strongly placed to roll over Wales as well.

The 15-member Pakistan squad was due to take on South Africa and England in their remaining games before the knockout rounds.