India’s tour of South Africa to go ahead as scheduled

India will be touring South Africa for a three-match Test and ODI series as scheduled only the T20 series has been scrapped after BCCI was assured by CSA about a tight biosecure bubble. Recently South Africa has been vastly impacted by the new strain of COVID-19 known as “Omnicorn” which has slowly and steadily expanded in 24 countries including India too.

The national selection committee will soon announce the extended squad for the tour of South Africa and Men in Blue were expected to travel South Africa on December 9^th 2021 which will be moved by at least one week now as all the schedule of South Africa tour will be revised now with no T20 series being part of it.

Some of the players who are not part of the squad have already reached Mumbai and are staying inside the biosecure bubble It is believed that at least for the initial phase, the matches could be held behind closed doors.

“The CSA has assured us that the bubble is safe and that there will be no problem. Safety of our players and staff is paramount and there won’t be any compromise on that front,” a source in the BCCI said.

In a statement, Cricket South Africa confirmed that the venues will be confirmed in the next 48 hours.

Pholetsi Moseki, acting Chief Executive Officer at Cricket South Africa said, “I would like to thank both the leadership of Cricket South Africa, as well as the leadership of the BCCI for working so tirelessly to make this tour a reality.  Even under the most uncertain times, the Boards kept the light of hope alive and kept us anticipating that this tour will indeed take place.”

“For us as CSA it is always a meeting of old friends when the Proteas take on India, but we will still present the fans with a compelling proposition and a great spectacle to watch.  I would like to take this opportunity to also thank our commercial partners and fans, as we promise them a great game of cricket ahead.”