Sydney: Australia pulled out of their Test cricket tour in South Africa on Tuesday (February 2) due to the Coronavirus concerns in the country. Currently, South Africa is battling a second wave of the Covid-19 virus. Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley shared a statement by saying travelling to the country posed an “unacceptable” risk for players.
“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,” Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley said.
Australia was scheduled to play three Tests against South Africa starting early March. “This decision has not been made lightly and we are extremely disappointed, especially given the importance of continuing international cricket at this time. 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.”
“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.” the statement further read.
“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. 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.”
