Cricket legend Ian Chappell feels a sportsman doesn’t need a crowd always to be spurred on but he acknowledges the feeling of playing in an empty stand at SCG where Australia played against New Zealand and also beat convincingly by 71 runs in Friday’s ODI before the three-match ODI series was cancelled.

“I’m one who believes you don’t necessarily need a crowd to be spurred on as a sportsman; it’s the thrill of a close contest that gets the juices flowing,” Chappell wrote in ESPNcricinfo. “Nevertheless it was a strange silence that accompanied scintillating boundaries and landmark scores at the SCG.”

“The upside was the absence of mindless chatter over the PA system; it was good to enjoy a game of cricket where you could hear yourself think. The cancelling of major cricket matches is a rare occurrence and casts the sport back to the dark days of the two world wars,” he added.

He even shared an incident of world war days when England had faced a dangerous situation during the game.

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“Test matches were suspended in early 1914 and didn’t resume until late 1920 because of the First World War. The gap in competition was slightly longer during the Second World War, stretching from August 1939 until March 1946.”

“Jack Robertson, a successful opening batsman for Middlesex and England, was batting at Lord’s in 1944 when the air-raid sirens erupted. The players and umpires all lay flat on the ground as they had been trained to do until the danger passed. On resumption, Robertson casually lifted the first delivery over the boundary for six,” Chappell wrote.

“The finish provided another unusual sight: the opponents didn’t shake hands or hug but acknowledged each other in a variety of different ways from the recommended safe distance of a couple of metres. These are indeed strange and difficult times but the main priority is to stay healthy — a worthwhile objective,”  concluded.