Pity everything is blocked off: Steyn on COVID-19 impact on sports

Johannesburg: Chilling at home after coming back from a coronavirus-forced "hotel arrest" in Pakistan, South African pacer Dale Steyn feels it's a pity that sporting events are being cancelled en masse due to the crisis as "if you take sport away, then I don't know really what we have.

"Steyn, who returned from Pakistan due to the virus outbreak, said it's indescribable how the situation changed in a matter of hours. He was playing for Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League which was suspended on the day of its semifinal clashes.

"It is actually such a pity that everything is being blocked off, because in a country like South Africa, where we have all of our problems from the past - culture, religion, ethnic backgrounds - the one thing that brings everybody together is sport," Steyn told 'ESPNCricinfo'.

No stockpiling, please

"But now at the moment, you don't have that. In South Africa, we kind of like looking for things that unite people in big, big groups. When you don't have sport, it's like, oh, what do we fall back onto?

Despite the panic all around, Steyn said he has avoided stockpiling essentials like many others as it's unfair to do so in a crisis.

"It just seems like it is the only topic of conversation. Any WhatsApp groups that I'm part of, it's really tough to escape. Normally if I am on holiday I'll be planning a fishing trip or a surfing trip. At the moment I am just chilling at home," Steyn said.

World Cup videos & Quinny de Kock

"We were under that kind of hotel arrest -- advised not to go out and wander the streets, which is totally fine; I don't want to break protocol and (have) something happen and be blamed for cricket never being played in Pakistan again because I did something stupid."

If he were to watch a match or two from the past on video while he is stuck at home, which would that be?

"I would probably say that they should put every World Cup up until '99 on. So 1992, '96, '99 - I love those World Cups," he said.

"And even the one in South Africa (2003) because that's when I really started to get into guys like Brett Lee, because I knew the possibility of me playing against them or meeting them was so much closer than what it was in, say, '92, when I first got introduced to the game."

Asked which team-mates he would want to be quarantined with, Steyn said, " I would love to be in quarantine with someone like Quinny de Kock."

"He is one of my favourite people in the world. If you walk into his (hotel) room, he's either making flies for fishing or he is watching a fishing video or he is watching a cooking video. And when you are at his house, he's doing the same stuff.

"I hate cooking, so it would be great if he was. Because then I could watch all the fishing videos that he's watching, I could help him do all the tying, and he could cook all the food. He's a proper cook," he added.