Cricket South Africa director of cricket Graeme Smith "extremely disappointed" that tour called off at "the eleventh hour"; Australia were due to play three Tests against the Proteas in March; New Zealand qualify for World Test Championship Final
Tuesday 2 February 2021 14:07, UK
Australia have postponed their Test tour of South Africa in March due to health concerns regarding the coronavirus pandemic - leaving Cricket South Africa director of cricket Graeme Smith "extremely disappointed".
South Africa is battling a second wave of COVID-19 and a new variant of the virus, with Cricket Australia interim CEO Nick Hockley saying travelling to the country posed an "unacceptable" risk to the touring party.
However, Smith was left frustrated that the decision was made "at the eleventh hour", saying: "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.
"To to be informed about the CA decision at the eleventh hour is frustrating."
Hockley had earlier said in a statement: "Following extensive due diligence with medical experts, it has become clear that traveling from Australia to South Africa at this current time poses an unacceptable level of health and safety risk to our players, support staff and the community.
"We acknowledge the significant amount of work by CSA in planning for the tour, during which we made it clear that CA was prepared to take on additional cost and effort to make the series happen.
"This decision has not been made lightly and we are extremely disappointed, especially given the importance of continuing international cricket at this time, our valued relationship with CSA, and our aspirations to compete in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship.
"However, we have been consistent since the start of the pandemic that the health and safety of our people is always our number one priority and unfortunately despite best efforts to agree a biosecurity plan, the risks are simply too great at this time.
"As difficult and disappointing a decision as this is, especially for Justin, Tim and the team, we have a duty of care to our people and their health and safety can't be compromised.
"We look forward to playing the series against CSA at a date to be confirmed in due course and we send CSA and the people of South Africa our very best wishes for a successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine and a return to normality soon."
In a media release, Cricket South Africa also spoke of "immense disappointment" at the postponement of the series, and added: "The safety of players is always paramount and over the past few months, CSA 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. CSA worked hard to meet the changing demands of our 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 per cent reduction in new Covid-19 infections since the peak of the second wave in December 2020."
CSA's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shuaib Manjra, said there was not much more his organisation could have done to appease Cricket Australia, saying: "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.
"We subsequently agreed to two separate BSEs and had granted Australia full and exclusive use of the Irene Country Lodge, which we shared with Sri Lanka, with a minimum staff present on site.
"In terms of the arrangements, the Proteas were to move to a separate hotel altogether. Furthermore, all hotel staff, match officials and even bus drivers were to enter the BSE 14 days prior to Australia's arrival.
"In addition, CSA had also committed to importing an Australian tracking system at great cost to ensure proper tracking of close contacts in the event of a positive test. The touring team was also going to be granted VIP access through the airports, after government intervention to ensure this privilege.
"These are just some of the protocols that CSA was to put in place. We had really gone the extra mile to make sure that the tour would proceed."
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 our Australian counterparts, the tour has been derailed.
"CSA has incurred significant costs related to the planning stages and the cancellation of the tour represents a serious financial loss.
"In this challenging period for cricket and its member countries, we believe the stance taken by CA is regrettable and will have a serious impact on the sustainability of the less wealthy cricket playing nations."
With the tour not going ahead, it means New Zealand have qualified for the World Test Championship final scheduled for Lord's later this summer, where they will play India, England or Australia.
