Coronavirus: Major Events Stand Cancelled Or Postponed Here's a list of some of the biggest events, across sports, technology and entertainment, that have been affected due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
By Debroop Roy
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As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across the globe, the disruptions are being felt across business sectors. Several forced lockdowns around the world have also meant that major events are getting cancelled and/or postponed, with little visibility and plenty of skepticism on their near-term future.
Here's a list of some of the biggest events that have been affected due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Sports
Among the worst hit have been sports events as organisers have had to either reschedule entire or partial events, or have them hosted in front of empty stadiums to be telecasted to the home-stuck audience.
The National Basketball Association, which is considered as the premier basketball league in the world, suspended its season earlier this month after a player tested positive for the virus. "The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic," it had announced.
In tennis, the BNP Paribas Open, also known as Indian Wells Masters, was to be held this month but had to be cancelled while the much-awaited French Open was moved from May to September.
Football too has seen some major events getting affected with both the European Football Championship and the Copa America being shifted to next year. The English Premier League has been postponed as well.
Closer home, the India-South Africa series between the men's cricket teams saw the last two one-day internationals being called off after the first one was washed off due to rain. The Indian Premier League, which sees the participation of cricketers from across countries, too has been postponed till April 15 while reports suggest a cancellation or a major rescheduling could happen.
Technology
Even major technology events across the world have faced the brunt of the outbreak.
Social networking giant Facebook announced last month that its annual F8 developer conference in San Jose, California, its biggest of the year, was cancelled over such concerns. Google soon followed suit cancelling its I/O developers event which was to be held in May. The Alphabet-owned company typically uses the event to announce big changes to its suite of products.
Apple has gone online with its worldwide developers conference, a fate similar to Adobe Summit 2020. One of the other major tech events to be affected by COVID-19 is the Game Developers Conference which was to be held this month. A shorter form of the event is set to be held in August.
Entertainment
The entertainment industry has been steadily cancelling shoots as well as events due to pandemic.
From the 73rd edition of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, which was to be held between May 12 and May 23, getting postponed with no new dates announced to UK's oldest, the Edinburgh Film Festival being pushed from its original June schedule, the list is long.
Among movies, big releases such as Marvel's New Mutants, Black Widow and F9 (Fast and Furious 9) have been postponed. In India, the likes of Sooryavanshi, Haathi Mere Saathe and "83 have pushed back their respective release dates.
