The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Thursday expressed condolence at the death of a mathematician and statistician Tony Lewis.

Lewis was 78.

Lewis is the co-creator of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method for deciding weather-affected limited-overs matches in the game of cricket.

BCB CEO Nizam Uddin Chowdhury said Tony Lewis revolutionised the cricket with a method that is considered the fairest in settling weather-interrupted games.

His contribution will be forever remembered, he added.

Lewis and fellow statistician Frank Duckworth had co-devised the system originally called the Duckworth-Lewis method which was first used in 1997 and officially endorsed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1999.

The system calculates targets based on the batting team's wickets in hand, and overs in hand via mathematical formulas.

In 2014, Prof Steven Stern of Australia’s Bond University   became the custodian of the system following the retirements of Duckworth and Lewis.

The apex body of the World Football FIFA has approved the proposal of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) for postponing its Executive Congress 2010 scheduled for April 20 due to the pandemic coronavirus outbreak globally.

The FIFA, in a written letter on March 31, advised BFF to arrange BFF Executive Congress 2020 soon after the situation gets normal and directed the BFF present executive committee to run the federation till the fresh election.

BFF Senior Vice President Abdus Salam Murshedy MP informed this on Thursday at a video conference with journalists when BFF General Secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag was also present.

Earlier on March 27, the BFF executive committee decided to postpone its election billed April 20 due to spread of coronavirus in the country and forwarded the decision to FIFA.

The Spanish league is putting together a detailed plan to get teams ready for when the league restarts, recommending a mini-preseason and a large number of tests for players, their close relatives and club employees.

The 19-page "protocol" prepared by the league gives the first glimpse at what some of the top European leagues may be preparing for when the competitions resume following the coronavirus pandemic.

The plan is not yet finalized but a draft of the Spanish league's document was obtained by radio network Cope. The four-phase plan has a series of recommendations that will be presented to clubs before players can return to practice, something that the league suggests may happen even while Spain remains in lockdown because of the outbreak.

The league isn't expected to restart until government authorities deem it safe for everyone's health, but the document details actions that could be put in place in confined facilities such as training centers or team hotels, thus not breaching lockdown measures.

Spain has been hit hard by the outbreak, with more than 110,000 cases and 10,000 deaths.

The league initially suspended two rounds of games in March, but the stoppage was extended after the government declared a state of emergency that is expected to last at least until April 11. Players and members of several Spanish clubs have been infected by the coronavirus in the last few weeks.

According to the document, the league recommends a "minimum of 15 days" of practice before the games can resume, with only essential personnel participating in the sessions.

The four stages of the protocol contemplate a preparation phase that would be followed by solo practice sessions, smaller group sessions and finally full-squad sessions. The league says the basic principles of the protocol were put together "to guarantee the safety" of players, their close relatives and the clubs' staff and workers.

Before training resumes, the league says two sets of COVID-19 tests should be performed on club employees, coaches and players, in addition to their family members. Players can be tested at home or at drive-thru locations made available to them.

Everyone at the training facilities would have to be identified with accreditation indicating whether they are "high protection" members — players and those with close contact with them — or "medium protection" personnel, which would include security members and other employees.

The league protocol has detailed sections on how the clubs must operate areas such as the kitchen, laundry room, changing room, gym and physio room. The document says the cook must be in charge of opening the kitchen, which has to be cleaned by a single person. Only one person can operate the storage room, and another the laundry facility.

The gyms will initially be limited to those with injuries, and only one or two players can use it at a time, depending on the size of the facility.

The league recommends the use of several buses to transport players when needed, with one person sitting every five rows and always wearing masks and gloves. The clubs will send food to players' homes so no one has to leave for groceries. The league says access to players' and coaches' homes should not be granted to anyone not living there.

During the solo training sessions, players should be told what to do at night and the next morning will drive by themselves to the training facilities — always using the same vehicle and already wearing the training uniform.

Only two players will be allowed on the training field at a time, and they must exercise on opposite sides. No more than eight players should be at the training facility at the same time, and the players' arrival must happen 15 minutes apart.

The league says players should always wear gloves and masks until starting their training sessions. Gloves should also be used during the solo sessions when possible. A few members of the training staff will be allowed to watch the solo sessions from a distance.

During the group sessions, the squads will be divided in three groups of eight and the clubs again will be encouraged to test players for COVID-19 if they deem necessary. Three changing rooms will be used in each training session, with no more than three players sharing them at a time. Each player will have a designated shower and place to change.

The players' training material on the field should be at least 5 meters (16 feet) apart, and the league recommends the sessions be prepared in a way that "social distancing" guidelines are maintained to reduce the risk of contagion.

Meals will be left on bags with the players' names or jersey numbers, and they must eat inside their rooms, which is where they must stay at all times without any direct contact with other players.

The full-squad sessions will mean a return to normalcy, though strict hygiene measures will have to remain in place and tests for COVID-19 can still be performed. Personnel should still wear gloves and masks, and no more than two players should share the same area in the gym or the physio room.

"At this stage, it will be essential not to let the guard down and to continue with these hygiene measures through the end of the health emergency," the league said in the document.

Top 91 Bangladeshi cricketers, who are contracted with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) as the First-class ones, decided to donate their 15-day salary to help the poor people who have been suffering due to crisis created over coronavirus pandemic. 

The donation will go to the fund of the Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) who earlier called for an initiative to help the underprivileged people across the country during this crisis. 

“We will try to extend this initiative to as many places as possible. We have a strong base in more than 30 districts. We understand it’s a big challenge to overcome the current situation created over coronavirus. But we believe it’s possible [to tackle the situation] if we extend our helping hand,” Debabrata Paul, member secretary of CWAB, told UNB.

At the same time, he urged people to contribute to this fund. He said, “It’s a big challenge. We will try to help the people at the Upazila level. So I would like to request interested people to contribute to the fund  so that we can reach as many people as possible.”

All the cricketing events of Bangladesh are on halt due to the outbreak of the virus which has left many cricketers jobless. In response to this situation, BCB decided to help the cricketers with a one-time financial aid which will be applied for both men and women cricketers. 

Meanwhile, more than 9 lakh people were tested positive for coronavirus around the globe and more than 47000 died. As per the latest update on Mar 2, Bangladesh identified 56 people who are infected with the coronavirus while six of them have died.

Wimbledon was canceled on Wednesday because of the coronavirus pandemic, the first time since World War II that the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament won't be played.

Britain imposed a nationwide lockdown just over a week ago, and the All England Club announced after a two-day emergency meeting that the event it refers to simply as The Championships is being scrapped for 2020. That hadn't happened since 1945.

Wimbledon was scheduled to be played on the club's grass courts on the outskirts of London from June 29 to July 12.

Instead, the next edition of the tournament will be June 28 to July 11, 2021.

Eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer surely spoke for many with a one-word message on Twitter: “Devastated.”

Also Wednesday, the ATP and WTA announced that the men's and women's professional tours would be suspended until at least July 13, bringing the number of elite tennis tournaments affected by the coronavirus to more than 30. The top tours already had been on hold through June 7. Lower-level events on the Challenger Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour also are called off through mid-July now.

Wimbledon first was held in 1877 and has been contested every year since, with the exception of two stretches: from 1915-18 because of World War I, and from 1940-45 because of World War II.

“It has weighed heavily on our minds that the staging of The Championships has only been interrupted previously by World Wars,” club chairman Ian Hewitt said in a press release, “but, following thorough and extensive consideration of all scenarios, we believe that it is a measure of this global crisis that it is ultimately the right decision to cancel this year’s Championships, and instead concentrate on how we can use the breadth of Wimbledon’s resources to help those in our local communities and beyond.”

Wimbledon joins the growing list of sports events called off completely in 2020 because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

That includes the Tokyo Olympics — which have been pushed back 12 months — and the NCAA men's and women's college basketball tournaments.

Wimbledon is the first major tennis championship wiped out this year because of the coronavirus. The start of the French Open was postponed from late May to late September.

Shortly after the news came from Wimbledon, the U.S. Tennis Association issued a statement saying it “still plans to host the U.S. Open as scheduled,” from Aug. 31 to Sept. 13 in New York.

Wednesday's decision by the All England Club means Novak Djokovic and Simona Halep will not get a chance to defend their Wimbledon titles from 2019.

“We are going through something bigger than tennis and Wimbledon will be back!” Halep wrote on social media. “And it means I have even longer to look forward to defending my title.”

Serena Williams retweeted the club's message about the cancellation and wrote: “I'm Shooked.”

The move also takes away what might have been one of Federer's best chances to try to add to his men's-record 20 Grand Slam titles. Federer, who turns 39 in August, is currently recovering from knee surgery and planned to return in time for the European grass-court circuit that now has been erased from the calendar.

In a statement last week, the All England Club said that postponing the two-week event would not come "without significant risk and difficulty" because of the grass surface that is affected by weather conditions. The club also said then that it had ruled out "playing behind closed doors" without spectators.

Hundreds of thousands of people have caught COVID-19, and thousands have died. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough, but also milder cases of pneumonia, sometimes requiring hospitalization.

The All England Club said it would work to help with the emergency response to the pandemic, including distributing medical equipment and food and offering the use of their facilities in other ways.

Regular day-to-day life has come to a halt in many ways in many parts of the world in recent weeks, and sports has reflected that.

The NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball are on hold indefinitely; the Kentucky Derby, Masters and Indianapolis 500 were pushed back several months until September; England's Premier League and other club soccer competitions are currently suspended; the European soccer championship — scheduled to end in London on the same day as the Wimbledon men's final — was postponed from 2020 to 2021.