Cricket SA confident Sri Lanka tour will go ahead

Cricket South Africa remains confident that the rest of the summer schedule for the men's Proteas will take place, despite the hasty end to the England series this week.

Officials from CSA have been in contact with their Sri Lankan counterparts to give them assurances that all the proper measures will be in place - including stricter controls than was the case for England - for the Boxing Day and New Years Test matches.

Cricket SA’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shuaib Manjra said Tuesday that he is “fairly confident,” that the Proteas’ Tests against Sri Lanka at SuperSport Park and the Wanderers will continue.

The ODI series between England and South Africa was indefinitely postponed on Monday, after tests for Covid-19 over the weekend indicated what was referred to as “unconfirmed positive tests” among two members of the England group. That followed three positive tests in the Proteas squad, while two members of staff at the hotel where the teams were staying also tested positive.

However on Tuesday, the England Cricket Board confirmed that after further testing and analysis, the two individuals were “not infected.” That won’t go down well in the corridors at CSA, especially since the England squad will still only leave on the charter flight on Thursday as originally scheduled.

Manjra would not venture an opinion about England’s decision to withdraw from the remainder of the tour. “I think that the real risks are extremely low, but perceived risk is something that I can’t control.”

Manjra is sure that the bio-secure environment set up in Cape Town for the two teams and the set of officials, was not breached and the onus was on players everywhere to grow accustomed to living in a pandemic. “The nature of infectious diseases is that they manifest in different ways and in different spaces, you can’t completely control them. I get a sense that England is a victim of its own success.”

England completed a full international schedule in its summer season earlier this year, hosting the West Indies (men’s and women’s teams), Australia, Ireland and Pakistan. The measures put in place there were extremely strict but also very expensive. “It was done at enormous cost, that we can’t afford. England will probably admit that it is unsustainable to do that,” said Manjra.