Australia cricketers to stick to handshake despite Coronavirus threat

Melbourne, March 9:  While England cricket team has enforced a fist-bump in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), Australian team will continue to shake hands as they have "enough hand sanitisers" in their kits.

"No, we'll keep shaking hands... there's plenty of hand sanitiser in the Australian kits," Australia head coach Justin Langer told cricket.com.au Monday following the team's 0-3 ODI series loss in South Africa.

"I'm sure we'll just keep shaking hands and move on from that," he added.

Australia will be facing New Zealand in the three-ODI Chappell-Hadlee Trophy beginning Friday and Langer has said that there are no plans to change how the team interacts in the dressing room or on the field.

England captain Joe Root had said last week that his players would be taking sensible precautions on their tour of Sri Lanka.

"We are not shaking hands with each other, using instead the well-established fist bump, and we are washing hands regularly and wiping down surfaces using the anti-bacterial wipes and gels we've been given in our immunity packs," Root had said.

England are scheduled to play two Test matches in Sri Lanka from March 19 to 31.

Overall, 1,00,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported so far across the globe and more than 3,000 people have lost their lives. In India itself, more than 35 positive cases of coronavirus have been reported so far.