Wimbledon on Wednesday joined the list of sports events cancelled or postponed in the face of the coronavirus pandemic signalling that the standstill in global sports could extend deep into the summer.
Here, we look at the events impacted by the virus which has killed more than 43,000 people around the world, according to a tally compiled at 1100 GMT Wednesday.
TENNIS
-- Wimbledon organisers on Wednesday scrapped the grasscourt Grand Slam for the first time since World War II.
The two-week event was due to start on June 29. The cancellation of the only grasscourt major leaves the season in disarray, with no tennis due to be played until mid-July.
-- US Tennis Association responded to the announcement by saying that they still plan to host the US Open starting August 31 in New York.
-- The French Open has been postponed from its May 24-June 7 slot to September 20-October 4.
-- The finals of the Fed Cup, scheduled for Budapest from April 14-19, postponed indefinitely.
TOKYO OLYMPICS
-- The Tokyo Games, originally scheduled to start on July 24, have been put back almost exactly one year and will instead open on July 23, 2021.
The Paralympics will be held from August 24 to September 5.
ATHLETICS
-- The postponement of the Olympics had a knock-on effect with World Athletics putting back their world championships, scheduled for Eugene, Oregon, from August 6-15 2021, to 2022 to accommodate the re-arranged Tokyo Games.
-- The World Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed for a year.
-- Boston Marathon moved from April 20 to September 14.
-- London Marathon switched from April 26 to October 4.
FOOTBALL
Internationals
-- UEFA, which had already postponed Euro 2020 until 2021, on Wednesday axed all other international games scheduled for June to give suspended club competitions a chance to finish. UEFA said it was determined they should finish by June 30.
-- To make way for the Euros next summer, the women's Euro scheduled for July 7 to August 1, 2021, will be postponed along with the Nations League final stages.
-- The Copa America has been moved from June 12-July 12 2020 in Argentina and Colombia to summer 2021.
Clubs
-- UEFA has postponed the Champions League, Europa League and women's Champions League finals, originally scheduled for May but has given no new dates.
-- In Italy, where more than 12,000 people have died, all matches -- as well as all major sports events -- have been suspended. Administrators say they are not expecting a resumption before May 2 at the earliest.
-- The English Premier League has been suspended until April 30.
-- In Germany, the Bundesliga suspension has been extended to April 30.
-- In Spain, all professional football has been suspended indefinitely.
-- In France, Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 and women's football have been suspended indefinitely.
-- Outside Europe, most top leagues have been affected, with the start of the J-League delayed, Major League Soccer in the United States and China's top-flight Super League put on hold.
RUGBY UNION
-- The Six Nations tournament was disrupted with four matches, including all of the final-round games scheduled to be played in March, put back until October.
-- France's Top 14, the English Premiership and the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby are all suspended while the European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup semi-finals and finals have been postponed. The finals of the two competitions were due to have been played on the weekend of May 22/23 in the French city of Marseille.
MOTOR RACING
-- The first eight races of the Formula One season have been either scrapped or postponed with the season opener now put back until at least June 14 with the Canada Grand Prix in Montreal.
-- US autoracing's famed Indianapolis 500 was moved from May 24 to August 23.
-- In motorcycling, the first five rounds of the world championships have been postponed. The season is due to open with the French Grand Prix at Le Mans on May 17.
GOLF
-- The Masters (April 9-12) and the PGA Championship (May 14-17) have been put back to unspecified dates while the USPGA Tour is effectively suspended until May 21. The US LPGA Tour is on hold until May 14.
-- The European Tour has put events on hold until June 4.
CRICKET
-- All major international cricket series cancelled.
-- The start of India's IPL, originally scheduled for March 29, was delayed until at least April 15.
-- A swathe of qualifiers due to take place before July for the Twenty20 World Cup and the 2023 50-over World Cup postponed.
CYCLING
-- The International Cycling Union announced on Wednesday that it was extending the suspension of all events until at least June 1.
-- The French Sports Minister has raised the possibility that fans could be banned from the roadside in the Tour de France, which is due to start on June 27.
-- The three week Giro d'Italia in May and the spring classics have been called off, but the postponement of the Olympic Games opens a summer and Autumn window in the schedule and which could allow the Tour de France to run in August, the Vuelta in September and the Giro in October.
BASEBALL
-- Major League Baseball cancelled Opening Day on March 12 and has not set a date for a start of the season. The June series in London between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinal has been cancelled.
BASKETBALL
-- The NBA has been on hold indefinitely since March 11 for an initial period of one month.
ICE HOCKEY
-- The National Hockey League halted on March 12, three weeks before the end of the regular season.
-- International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships scheduled for Switzerland in May cancelled.
ALPINE SKIING
-- The season-closing World Cup Finals in Cortina d'Ampezzo were scrapped.
Jay's grandma’s popcorn from Gujarat is now selling out everywhere.
Ditched the influencer route and began posting hilarious videos online.
Available in Sweet Chai and Spicy Masala, all vegan and gluten-free
Jayspent 18 months on a list. Thousands of names. Influencers with follower counts that looked like phone numbers. He was going to launch his grandmother's popcorn the right way: send free bags, wait for posts, pray for traction. That's the playbook, right? That's what you do when you're a nobody selling something nobody asked for.
Then one interaction made him snap. The entitlement. The self-importance. The way some food blogger treated his family's recipe like a favour they were doing him. He looked at his spreadsheet. Closed it. Picked up his phone and decided to burn it all down.
Now he makes videos mocking the same people he was going to beg for help. Influencers weeping over the wrong luxury car. Creators demanding payment for chewing food on camera. Someone having a breakdown about ice cubes. And guess what? The internet ate it up. His popcorn keeps selling out. And from Gujarat, his grandmother's 60-year-old recipe is now moving units because her grandson got mad enough to be funny about it.
Jay’s grandma’s popcorn from Gujarat is now selling out everywhere Instagram/daadisnacks
The kitchen story
Daadi means grandmother in Hindi. Jay's daadi came to America from Gujarat decades ago. Every weekend, she made popcorn with the spices she grew up with, including cardamom, cinnamon, and chilli mixes. It was her way of keeping home close while living somewhere that didn't taste like it.
Jay wanted that in stores. Wanted brown faces in the snack aisle. It didn’t happen overnight. It took a couple of years to get from a family recipe to something they could actually sell. Everyone pitched in, including his grandmom, uncle, mum. The spices come from small local farmers. There are just two flavours for now, Sweet Chai and Spicy Masala. It’s all vegan and gluten-free, packed in bright bags that instantly feel South Asian.
The videos don't look like marketing. They look like someone venting at 11 PM after scrolling too long. He nails the nasal influencer voice. The fake sympathy. “I can’t believe this,” he says in that exaggerated influencer tone, “they gave me the cheaper car, only eighty grand instead of one-twenty.” That clip alone blew up, pulling in close to nine million views.
Most people don't know they're watching a snack brand. They think it's social commentary. Jay never calls himself an influencer. He says he’s a creator, period. There’s a difference, and he makes sure people know it. His TikTok has around three hundred thousand followers, Instagram about half that. The comments read like a sigh of relief, people fed up with fake polish, finally hearing someone say what everyone else was thinking.
This fits into something called deinfluencing; people pushing back against the buy-everything-trust-nobody cycle. But Jay's version has teeth. He's naming names, calling out the economics. Big venture money flows to chains with good lighting. Family businesses with actual stories get ignored because their content isn't slick enough.
Jay watched his New York neighbourhood change. Chains moved in. Influencers posted about places that had funding and were aesthetic. The old spots, the family ones, got left behind. His videos are about that gap. The erosion of local culture by money and aesthetics.
"Big chains and VC-funded businesses are promoted at the expense of local ones," he said. His content doesn't just roast influencers. It promotes other small food makers who can't afford to play the game. He positions Daadi as a defender of something real against something plastic.
And it's working. Not just philosophically. Financially. The videos drive traffic. People click through, try the popcorn, come back. The company can't keep stock. That's the proof.
Daadi popcorn features authentic Gujarat flavours like Sweet Chai and Spicy Masala, all vegan and gluten-free Daadi Snacks
The blowback
People unfollow because they think he's too harsh. Jay's take: "I would argue I need to be meaner."
In May, he posted that he's not chasing content creation money like most people at his follower count. "I post to speak my mind and help my family's snack biz." That's a different model. Most brands pay influencers to make everything look perfect. They chase viral polish, and Jay does the opposite. In fact, he weaponises rawness and treats criticism like a product feature.
The internet mostly backs him. Reddit threads light up with support. One commenter was "toxic influencers choking on their matcha lattes searching their Balenciaga bags." Another: "Influencers are boring and unoriginal and can get bent." The anger is shared. Jay simply gave it a microphone and a snack to buy.
Jay's success says something about where things are going. People are done with curated perfection. They can smell the artificiality now. They respond to brands that feel like humans rather than committees. Daadi doesn't sell aspiration. Doesn't sell a lifestyle. Sells popcorn and a point of view.
The quality matters, including the spices, the sourcing, and the family behind it. But the edge matters too. He’s not afraid to say what most brands tiptoe around. “We just show who we are,” Jay says. “No pretending, no gloss. People can feel that and that’s when they reach for the popcorn.”
Most small businesses can't afford to play the traditional game. Can't pay influencers. Can't hire agencies. Can't fake their way into feeds. Maybe they don't need to. Maybe honesty and humour can cut through if they're sharp enough. If the product backs it up. If the story is real and the person telling it isn't trying to sound like a PR script.
This started with a list Jay didn't use. The business took off the moment he stopped trying to play by the usual rules and started speaking his mind. Turns out, honesty sells. And yes, the popcorn really does taste good.
Daadi Snacks merch dropInstagram/daadisnacks
The question is whether this scales. Whether other small businesses watch this and realise they don't need to beg for attention from people who don't care. Right now, Daadi keeps selling out. People keep watching. The grandmother's recipe that was supposed to need influencer approval is doing fine without it. Better than fine. Turns out the most effective marketing strategy might just be giving a damn and not being afraid to show it.
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