Cricket South Africa (CSA) was on Tuesday informed by Cricket Australia (CA) that their tour to the country scheduled to begin later this month will not be going ahead due to Covid-19 fears. 

CSA expressed its immense disappointment over the decision by the Aussies in a statement earlier today.

CSA said the safety of players is always paramount and over the past few months, they held many detailed discussions with CA regarding Covid-19 protocols. These discussions included assessing and managing the Covid-19 risks and consulting with a range of leading medical experts including the SA Ministerial Covid Advisory Committee.

According to CSA they worked hard to meet the changing demands of their Australian counterparts.

CSA is particularly disappointed given that South Africa recently hosted Sri Lanka in a bio-secure environment (BSE) at Centurion, with no breaches of protocol. Currently the Pakistan Women’s team are touring the country in a secure BSE in Durban.

Apart from those two successful BSEs, CSA has continued its domestic Momentum One-Day Cup in a BSE in Potchefstroom and no positive cases have been reported.

In addition, it must be noted that President Ramaphosa announced an easing of lockdown restrictions last night in response to the 75% reduction in new Covid-19 infections since the peak of the second wave in December 2020.

“We are extremely disappointed by the decision of CA. CSA has been working tirelessly in recent weeks to ensure that we meet every single expectation of CA. This was set to be the longest tour in a BSE comprising a three-match Test series that was scheduled to begin with Australia’s arrival later in the month. So, to be informed about the CA decision at the eleventh hour is frustrating,” Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith, stated.

CSA’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shuaib Manjra, added that there was not much more CSA could have done to appease CA and prepare more appropriately.

“The protocols we had proposed to CA were unprecedented. Firstly, we had agreed that our own Proteas team would enter the BSE 14 days prior to the arrival of the Australian team, thus altering their planning during the current tour of Pakistan.  Amongst some of the other key arrangements made were that all four areas (two hotels and two venues) had a protocol to implement a strict BSE with no contact with anybody outside this area,” said Manjra.

Pholetsi Moseki, CSA Acting Chief Executive Officer said it is indeed sad that, after all the engagements and effort made to ensure a secure visit by the Aussies, the tour has been derailed.

He said CSA has incurred significant costs related to the planning stages and the cancellation of the tour represents a serious financial loss.

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