'The situation is very bad, tricky': Shoaib Akhtar predicts no cricket for next one year

With coronavirus pandemic wiping out the entire sporting calendar, sportspersons have been restricted to train indoors with no live sporting action happening at the moment. While many tournaments and series have been either postponed or cancelled, there are dark clouds hovering around the resumption of matches. Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar reckons that cricket would not be played for at least a year due to COVID-19 pandemic as he said that with people getting infected rapidly, one can’t go ahead with any sort of cricket anywhere around the world.

“If you ask me honestly, I do not know for how long the coronavirus outbreak will last, until and unless it is not known that how many people are infected, one cannot go ahead with any kind of cricket anywhere,” Akhtar said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.

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“I do not see cricket being played for at least a year due to the coronavirus. I see the virus troubling us for one year, these are troublesome times, I just hope we come out of this stronger,” he added.

“The situation is very bad; it is very tricky. I am not seeing the virus going for at least one year. But, we a group as different communities will come out of it. The world is not starting for the next one year, how can cricket start,” Akhtar further said.

There are speculations that bowlers would not be allowed to apply saliva to shine the ball after the resumption of play post coronavirus pandemic. Akhtar is of the view that bowlers won’t be able to apply saliva on the ball as it goes in the hands of players and spectators in the stadium.

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“I do not think that one can apply saliva on the ball now, we as bowlers apply saliva on the ball to make the ball shinier, the ball goes in the hands of everyone on the park, I saw a report of the ICC which said bowlers would not be able to apply saliva on the ball, Akhtar said.

“Cricket is a game which requires contact, if ICC is thinking about passing the law related to applying saliva on the ball, then I welcome the decision keeping coronavirus in mind,” he added.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka is the latest bilateral series to be postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.