Kane Richardson Disappointed To Sit At Home As Cricket Comes To A Grinding Halt Amid Coronavirus Scare

Updated - 17 Mar 2020, 04:15 PM

Kane Richardson
Kane Richardson (Credits: CA)

Australia’s fast bowler, Kane Richardson is devastated with the thought of sitting back and doing nothing amid the coronavirus scare. The outbreak of the deadly virus — Coronavirus has taken a toll on everybody across the globe. So much so, it has affected the sports landscape to a great extent.

Having played the first game of the ODI series behind closed doors, Australia-New Zealand series was suspended on Saturday.

Australia, New Zealand
Australia vs New Zealand (Credits: Twitter)

Australia won the first ODI by 71 at the spectator-less Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Friday.

The other two matches in the series were supposed to be the same. But the Kiwi government changed the circumstances. The rule would take effect from midnight on Sunday. Cricket Australia (CA) has also suspended all domestic games too.

Kane Richardson Disappointed To Sit Back And Do Nothing

Australian players are waiting to hear from Indian Premier League (IPL) about the next step after the cash-rich tournament was postponed due to coronavirus outbreak.

Seventeen Australians hold Indian Premier League contracts, which was scheduled to start on March 29 but has been suspended till April 15.

“We’re just waiting to hear,” Richardson told cricket.com.au’s The Unplayable Podcast where he detailed about the quarantine experience he had to undergo after complaining of a sore throat before the first ODI of the Chappell Hadlee series, which now stands cancelled.

“A lot of the blokes have opinions – ‘it’s going to get cancelled’, this and that – but again it can change in a day or a week, so I’ll just sit by the phone and get ready to play for the 15th at the moment – that’s what I’m thinking.”

Kane Richardson
Kane Richardson (Credits: Twitter)

“(The Australia squad) were all sitting around chatting about it. It’s happened out of nowhere.”

“A lot of us were going to be away from now til the end of the IPL, so to now be sitting at home with absolutely no idea when the next game of cricket is going to be for any of us, just shows how quickly this has grown.”

Richardson Opens Up On His Quarantine Experience

Kane Richardson was quarantined in a hotel room for 26 hours after complaining of coronavirus symptoms during their ODI series against New Zealand earlier this month.

“I was at risk because I’d travelled overseas within (the previous) two weeks and I had one of the four symptoms, so that was the reason I got tested,” the 29-year-old said.

“I thought it was all a joke at the time but (the team doctor) was adamant it wasn’t.”

Kane Richardson
Kane Richardson (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

“He spoke to various people on the phone to make sure he was doing the right thing and got the biggest swab I’ve ever seen out and stuck it into the back of my nose and back of my mouth, so it wasn’t a pleasurable experience but that was the protocol so I was happy to go along with it.”

“I wasn’t expecting a positive result and thankfully that’s what happened…I’m all good and I got the OK to go outside and in the fresh air again.”

The wrath of coronavirus has affected the sports world and cricket is not aloof from it.

Besides, multiple games and tournaments have been called off or postponed in wake of the deadly virus being spread at a rapid rate.

Also Read: Cricket Australia Hopeful Of Hosting Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 As Per Schedule

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