With the danger of coronavirus looming large, international travel has taken a different shape, even for seasoned travellers like India Davis Cup coach Zeeshan Ali.
Zeeshan reached Zagreb on Friday ahead of their Davis Cup Qualifier first round match against Croatia, to be held on Match 6-7. The players — Leander Paes, Divij Sharan, Sumit Nagal, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan — who are flying in from various parts of the world, will reach Zagreb on Saturday.
“I travelled from Bangalore to Zagreb, with a two-hour stopover in Doha. With the danger of the virus on my mind, I did wear a mask from Bangalore itself. This was the first time I had taken this kind of precaution. However, there was only a handful of passengers using it. At the immigration though, every official had a mask on, but even then I didn’t really feel any different from the innumerable times I have travelled abroad,” Zeeshan said from Zagreb.
“But the situation changed completely once I reached Doha. Sitting in the airport, waiting for my connecting flight, I saw masks everywhere. Almost all officials and ground-staff at the airport were wearing them. Being a busy airport, I witnessed a number of flights coming in from all over the world and more than 50 per cent of the passengers were wearing masks.
“It was almost like a scene from a movie. And that is when I started to feel unnerved, realising how severe the situation was worldwide. It’s scary that there is no cure for the virus.”
Once he reached Zagreb, Zeeshan was quizzed whether he had travelled to the far east nations like China, Japan or Korea. “Since I was travelling from India and had not been to these countries recently I was allowed to enter the country. Else they might have put me in quarantine,” he added.
There are three confirmed cases of the infection in Zagreb and Rijeka. However, no advisory has been issued to the tennis team, either by the India government or by Croatia, according to Zeeshan.
On the other hand, India on Friday pulled out of shotgun World Cup in Cyprus, scheduled to be held in Nicosia from March 4 to 13, citing the novel coronavirus threat.
The Asian Olympic wrestling qualifiers, scheduled to be held next month in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, have been postponed indefinitely due to similar concerns.
