MUMBAI: The Unacademy Road Safety World Series, featuring cricket legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and others, has been postponed due to the ongoing concerns over coronavirus.
With the government issuing a notification that public gatherings should be avoided, the organisers had initially thought of continuing the remainder of the tournament behind closed doors at the DY Patil Sports Complex in Navi Mumbai.
However, now the organisers have decided to postpone the league. In a statement, the organisers said that the remaining seven matches in the series will now be played when the situation is conducive to hold public events with large gathering and there are no travel restrictions.
Speaking on the development, Tendulkar said that it was the right step under the circumstance to reschedule the tournament.
"The rescheduling of this series, held to create awareness about Road Safety, is unfortunate yet the right step. We all hope and pray that the spread of novel coronavirus is contained."
Lara echoed Sachin's sentiment and said: "The situation is a little disappointing now but we are looking forward to come back and take part in the remaining games of the series."
"People are hungry for cricket, they are hungry to see legends, like (Virender) Sehwag and Sachin (Tendulkar), when they come out to play cricket. So I think this tournament was awesome. The competition was even more than I expected."
"It was very special, seeing Sachin back on the field again and seeing the crowd reaction," he added.
Sri Lanka's Romes Kaluwitharana said: "While I am a bit little disappointed looking at the current situation, but I am glad that the organizers are taking the necessary steps to ensure everything is under control."
"I am looking forward for things to work out fine at the earliest so that we can come back and finish this series," he added.