A fairly significat chunk of what sports journalists do is cover scheduled events. Games. Press conference. Interviews.

Unscheduled news generally sets off some scrambling. A hiring, a firing, a change in policy, a violent opinion — we expect that sort of unexpected, but it requires extra effort.

What we do not expect is scheduled events not happening. They are on the schedule. Then they happen.

Except in this case, when they did not. When two of the three major news stories we expected … just did not happen.

Very rare, that.

The first story to go away was a soccer match between the UAE and Kuwait. A friendly ahead of the Asian Cup, which starts in Australia on January 9.

The game was cancelled. The teams were at the stadium, but the UAE insisted that the match be held with no spectators but also with no videotaping. Kuwait insisted on video. The UAE said “we told you no video and you signed up for that” … and Kuwait said, “no, you didn’t say that”.

And the players got as far as the tunnel before the game was called off. Which is a story, yes. But a “we-said, they-said” sort of thing that is much less tidy. We were thinking competition, not words.

The second story that didn’t happen was the championship match of the Mubadala Tennis World Championship. A big deal. It was going to be our cover photo. Novak Djokovic versus Andy Murray. Nos 1 and 6 in the world.

Djokovic called in sick. Said he had a fever. And that was that.

Murray was declared champion, and about 5,000 people didn’t see them play. We reported on what did not happen — for the second time in one day.

No rain. No sn0w or sleet. No acts of God. No war or rumors of war.

A squabble and a fever — and two events didn’t happen.

Thank goodness for the Volvo Ocean Race. That went off as scheduled. The only big event today, from three, that did.

A rare case.