'It’s like in the men’s shoes and them in ours' - Alyssa Healy takes a cheeky dig at empty stadium in Australia-New Zealand ODI

The rise of the novel pandemic Coronavirus has forced the sporting world to either cancel or postpone or schedule the events behind closed doors. On the cricketing front, the Road Safety World series featuring legends and former cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Brian Lara, and many others have been postponed mid-way while the upcoming Asia XI vs World XI fixtures- scheduled to be hosted by the Bangladesh Cricket Board- has also been suspended.

As far as playing the game behind the closed doors is concerned, the upcoming two One-day Internationals between India and South Africa and the ongoing 50-over rubber between hosts Australia and their Trans-Tasman rivals in New Zealand will be played in empty stadiums.

In a way, it is surreal to think that just a week ago, we had more than 86,000 [86,174 to be precise] turn up for the finals of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup between eventual champions Australia and runners-up India at the colosseum of cricket that is the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Had the final been held today, chances are that it would have been played in an empty stadium, which would have been a pity, considering the amount of hard work put in by the organizers and the cricketers to realize their dream of #FilltheG.

Alyssa Healy on the record crowd in the Women’s T20 WC final

With the Australia-New Zealand ODI being played at an empty Sydney Cricket Ground, one of the journalists took to Twitter where he wrote: “In hindsight, the fact they got 86,714 to the G on Sunday night was miraculous timing. One week later and it would have been 0,” Daniel Cherny tweeted.

And, the Player of the match in the finals and one the bedrocks of the Aussies hammering the Women in Blue at the grandest stage of them all, Alyssa Healy had the most perfect response to Cherny’s tweet.

Healy replied: “It’s been a week of us feeling what it’s like in the men’s shoes and them in ours!! Haha”

It’s been a week of us feeling what it’s like in the men’s shoes and them in ours!! Haha.

— Alyssa Healy (@ahealy77) March 13, 2020

In a way, Healy’s statement is a reflection of the age-old cliche that ‘anything can happen’. No one would have thought that in the year 2020, Women’s game would be a sell-out and a men’s International- for whatever reasons there maybe- will be played in an empty stadium.