South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka postponed amidst coronavirus outbreak
Cricket South Africa (CSA) have confirmed that the country’s tour of Sri Lanka, that was set to take place in June, comprising of three ODIs and three T20Is, has now been postponed amidst the coronavirus outbreak. The boards are, however, planning to reschedule the tour as soon as normalcy resumes.
Having already seen their tour of India get called off in March, the Proteas have been dealt yet another blow in their preparation for the World T20 in October, with CSA confirming that the team’s limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka has been postponed indefinitely.
South Africa were set to play three ODIs and three T20Is in Sri Lanka in June, but growing concerns over the spread of COVID-19 in the country - and across the world, with travel restrictions also being an issue - has seen CSA and SLC mutually postpone the tour to a later date. The news was confirmed by CSA Acting Chief Executive Dr. Jacques Faul, who also revealed that the boards were keen on rescheduling the series as soon as possible, once normalcy is restored.
"It is very sad that we have been forced to take this step and we will re-schedule the tour as soon as cricket returns to a sense of normality and our international fixture list allows," Faul was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
"Our Proteas would not have been able to prepare properly taking our own lockdown situation into account and, more importantly, health considerations for our players, which are always paramount, were the over-riding factor.
“It would have been a particularly important tour for us with the three ODIs counting for the new ICC one-day league and the T20 programme being part of our preparation for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup scheduled for Australia later this year. It is very frustrating for the players who want to build on the good form they showed at the backend of our home summer against Australia.”
South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka is just one amongst the many tours that have been cancelled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Bangladesh’s tour of the United Kingdom and Australia’s tour of Bangladesh also having already been suspended due to the novel virus.
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