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Australia postpone South Africa tour citing Covid-19 concerns

Australia’s upcoming Test tour of South Africa has been postponed due to the new strain of the coronavirus virus in the host country.

Australia was supposed to depart for South Africa in late February for the three-match Test series against the Proteas, which was due to start on March 3, but Cricket Australia (CA) postpone the tour keeping public health in mind.

CA's interim CEO, Nick Hockley said: "Due to the public health situation in South Africa, which includes a second wave and new variant of the virus, and following extensive due diligence with medical experts, it has become clear that travelling 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.

"As difficult and disappointing a decision as this is, especially for Justin [Langer], Tim [Paine] and the team, we have a duty of care to our people and their health and safety can’t be compromised."

With that said, New Zealand have become the first team to qualify for the ICC World Test Championship, to be held at Lord's in June.

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