South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka that was scheduled to be played in June has been called off for now due to the coronavirus. This decision comes after the cricket controlling bodies of both countries considered the severity of the ongoing situation.
South African team were slated to play three One-Day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals on their visit to Sri Lanka likely starting from June 1. The one-day games would have been South Africa’s first fixtures in the International Cricket Council’s new one-day league. However, the mutual agreement on postponing the series was taken on Monday.
CSA and Sri Lanka Cricket today jointly announced the postponement of the Proteas tour to Sri Lanka that was scheduled to be played in the first half of June and consist of three ODIs and three T20 International matches. #BreakingNews #Thread pic.twitter.com/RQOzsz4epM
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) April 20, 2020
Cricket South Africa’s Chief Executive Jacques Faul cited the fact that the South African players would have been unable to prepare properly because of the lockdown in their country so calling off the bilateral series was the best decision made in acceptance of everyone.
“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,” said Faul.
Not just this series has been affected, the World Test Championship and the cash-rich Indian Premier League has been impacted badly due to the pandemic. Adding to his statement, Faul expressed his exasperation by saying, “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.”
Faul hailed the South African side for an undistinguished season with a 3-0 one-day series win against Australia.
“Very frustrating for the players who want to build on the good form they showed at the back end of our home summer against Australia”. He further added.
