Pushing back Australian Open start date no easy fix amid coronavirus scheduling dilemma

Having endured the greatest peacetime disruption to sport in the modern history of ball games, surely pushing the Australian Open back a couple of weeks would barely cause a blip on the radar of crisis-conditioned fans.

Simply conducting the 2021 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in February — within a drop shot of its original January 18-31 timeslot — seems something of a triumph, given Victoria was almost disqualified altogether from major sport due to its quarantine bungle false start.

Then there is the context provided by sport’s new abnormal — a Masters championship in November, AFL and NRL grand finals in late October, NBA and WNBA seasons contested inside bubbles, cricket Test matches played without crowds and Wimbledon not…