It's only March and is surely already the 2020 sport word - or symbol - of the year.

In the scheme of it, sportspeople both professional and amateur celebrating or blowing up about premierships being decided in front offices, rather than on playing fields and courts, is trivial.

People are dying and it will only get worse before it gets better. But here we are.

Wollongong was finally to host the Sheffield Shield final, after being in the reckoning in recent times due to the SCG's AFL commitments with the Sydney Swans.

The city just needed NSW to finish on top of the ladder for the five-day decider to be played at North Dalton Park.

And they did, only for coronavirus to strike.

So the Blues were awarded the trophy without bowling another ball, the asterisk planted in the pages of history with it. Even more remarkably, Cricket Illawarra forged on, after the Shield decision was made, with the decider between minor premiers Northern Districts and University to be played just seven kilometres up the road at Keira Oval.

Eventually administrator Glenn Bridge bowed to the pressure, calling it off and handing Northern Districts a deserved premiership.

Was it the right call?

Absolutely, as much as I feel for my former University clubmates.

Do the Butchers still carry the asterisk? Of course.

Legalities around insurance have to be considered, but in the end, they are amateur players, so the risk is harder to minimise when they're not always travelling, training and playing together. So if the Shield is off, the benchmark is set.

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If anything, the backlash against Cricket Illawarra over the decision is fuelled by a lack of consistent and coherent decision-making in the past.

With the NBA and English Premier League - among the hundreds of major international competitions - suspended indefinitely, the eyes of the world have turned to Australia, as the NRL and AFL pushes on, with the precautions and risks attached.

Assuming they make it through the entire season, and it is highly doubtful, given the evidence in Europe and America, the asterisk will be carried by the premiers, given the circumstances in which they play.

The AFL has shortened quarters and reduced to 17 rounds, the NRL season has left the Warriors stranded in Australia until the borders open again.

The international reaction, if there is an outbreak of COVID-19 among players in either code will be damning.

Financial considerations, particularly for the NRL, are one thing, but we've already seen the Australian Banking Association allow loan deferrals for small businesses for the next six months. There are ways and means.

And then there's the teflon NBL, which blundered while grandstanding their way to handing Perth the title.

Surely, given Sydney's extraordinary season at the top of the ladder and even though the Wildcats led the finals series 2-1, was incomplete, a joint title should have been awarded.

The asterisk remains.