English cricketing summer faces being caught in the eye of the coronavirus storm

The West Indies Test series and the start of the T20 Blast are both scheduled for when the UK government expect COVID-19 cases to peak

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Major events in the upcoming English cricketing summer are set to coincide with the peak of the coronavirus epidemic, throwing into serious doubt over how the season will be structured.

The UK government have moved to the "delay" phase of their plan to tackle COVID-19 but that has not yet included a ban on mass gathering such as sports events.

Measures such as requesting those with minor symptoms to self-isolate for seven days have however been implemented to take the strain off public services including the NHS.

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance believes the virus may not reach its highest infection rate for another 12-14 weeks, in early June.

And while the government has been advised that cancelling sporting fixtures is not necessary at this stage, it is under consideration.

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The timing of the peak coincides with the start of the West Indies Test on 4 June at The Oval, as well as the T20 Blast which gets underway on May 28.

County Championship matches are scheduled to run throughout the period - the season is due to start on April 12 - but whether that timetable is realistic remains to be seen.

Matches could be played behind closed doors, suspended or even cancelled. Four county sides have already pulled overseas pre-season tours.

The Hundred and the One-Day Cup are not due to start until mid-July.

England's Test series in Sri Lanka is among a number of global events to already be affected by the coronavirus outbreak, which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation.

^{The T20 Blast group stage is due to start on May 28}

The Indian Premier League has been pushed back until April 15 while matches across the world are being played behind closed doors.

Sports events in England have yet to be banned with the government's experts warning such a measure isn't necessarily backed up by science.

"On average one person infects two or three others," said Vallance. "You therefore have a very low probability of infecting a large number of people in a stadium, or a rather higher probability of infecting people very close to you.

"And that means that most of the transmission tends to take place actually with friends and colleagues in close environments, not in the big environments. So, it is true, of course that any cancellation can have some effect.

"But if you get a displacement activity where you end up with everyone congregating somewhere else, you may actually have perversely an increased risk, particularly in an indoors environment."

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