After the day when BCCI called off the One Day International series between India and South Africa and postponed the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, Indian captain Virat Kohli asked people to take care and vigilant during these dangerous times.

“Let’s stay strong and fight the #COVID19 outbreak by taking all precautionary measures. Stay safe, be vigilant and most importantly remember, prevention is better than cure. Please take care everyone,” Kohli tweeted.

Let's stay strong and fight the #COVID19 outbreak by taking all precautionary measures. Stay safe, be vigilant and most importantly remember, prevention is better than cure. Please take care everyone.

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) March 14, 2020

On the other hand, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Friday said that the “first priority is safety” after the board suspended the start of this year’s Indian Premier League from March 29 to April 15 in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“Let’s stick to the postponement (at the moment). First priority is safety, so we postponed the games,” Sourav Ganguly said in his first reaction.

“We will see what happens. It is too early to answer,” said Ganguly when he was asked if there will be more double headers in IPL this year if they are able to host it from April 15.

While he was asked whether the IPL franchisees are happy, Ganguly said, “Nobody has a choice.” However, a senior BCCI official also said that only the start date has been delayed while the other things remain the same with regard to the IPL as well. India has reported more than 80 positive cases so far from the coronavirus with the infected count standing at over 1,30,000 across the globe. Meanwhile, the death toll has gone beyond 5,000 internationally because of this novel virus.

Notably, Maharashtra reported 10 positive cases of coronavirus on Wednesday. Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, many sporting events in India and around the globe have been cancelled or postponed as of now. While the Bangladesh Cricket Board have decided to limit their sale of tickets for the opening T20 international match against Zimbabwe in Dhaka to one per person due to the threat posed by the dangerous coronavirus, Nepal’s Everest Premier League has been postponed on government advice. Alongside this, there have been questions on players’ participation in the Asia XI vs World XI as well which is scheduled to take place in Bangladesh.