Match of the Day adapts while Thurles racecourse provides live action

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted sport across the globe, but there has been a limited amount of live action shown on TV today while other channels have provided fans with some solace by broadcasting classics.

Here the PA news agency takes a look at what BBC, ITV, Sky Sports and BT Sport have put on.

Match of the Day was replaced by Mrs Brown’s Boys last weekend, but that was amended for Saturday, March 21 when the BBC announced plans to show a visualised version of the new MOTD podcast at 10.20pm.

In the show, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright will debate the greatest captains of the Premier League era.

Earlier in the day, FA Cup classics were broadcast on BBC One with Watford v Arsenal from 1987 and the 1978 encounter between West Brom and Nottingham Forest shown.

ITV were able to show live sport, with racing in Ireland given the green light to continue this week behind closed doors despite racing in Britain being shut down until the end of April.

Racing Live was at Thurles racecourse for five races including the Pierce Molony Memorial Novice Chase, with Zero Ten – trained by Emmet Mullins – claiming the win.

That was generally all for the free-to-air channels, but Channel 4 do have a Diego Maradona documentary on this evening charting his success with Napoli and his life in Naples during that nine-year period.

Early risers would have witnessed National Rugby League action between the Roosters and Sea Eagles in Australia on Sky Sports Arena as Daly Cherry-Evans’ late drop goal handed the Eagles a 9-8 victory.

This was followed on Sky Sports Arena by Cronulla Sharks-Melbourne Storm in the NRL, which went the way of Storm by a 12-10 score.

While Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Football, Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Action put on a number of short highlights and review shows throughout the day, not all channels followed that format.

Sky Sports Golf decided to broadcast the final day of the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie in its entirety, lasting just under 12 hours.

Australian sport was the provider of BT Sport’s live action, with the Westfield W-League Grand Final shown in the early hours of the morning and Melbourne City beating Sydney 1-0 in a behind-closed-doors encounter on BT Sport 1.

Later in the day was Australian Football League – Aussie Rules – when GWS Giants and Geelong Cats did battle and Giants came out on top 17.3 (105) to 11.7 (73).

There was also an A-League fixture between Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC, with Englishman Adam Le Fondre’s goal for the visitors only enough to earn them a 1-1 draw in front of thousands of empty seats.

BT Sport 3 had several Classic Premiership Rugby episodes on throughout the afternoon, which was a similar story with the Premier League Review show on BT Sport 1.

The live sport from the morning was also repeated while BT Sport 2 have a Jimmy Greaves film on in the evening.