CSA’s Graeme Smith "extremely disappointed" as Australia pull out of South Africa tour

Cricket Australia postponed their upcoming tour of South Africa due to COVID-19 pandemic.

By Salman Anjum - 03 Feb, 2021

Cricket Australia on Tuesday (February 2) postponed their upcoming tour of South Africa due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Australia were due to play three Tests in South Africa later this month, for which they have also named a 19-member squad last week.

In a statement, CA said that travelling to South Africa posed “unacceptable” risk to the touring party.

Amid the recent development, South Africa's director of cricket Graeme Smith has expressed disappointment by terming CA’s decision as frustrating.

"We are extremely disappointed by the decision of CA (Cricket Australia) ... To be informed about the CA decision at the eleventh hour is frustrating," Smith said in a media release.

“The amount of work that's gone in over the past few weeks in getting this tour under way has been immense.

"We've done everything possible to get the tour under way but there is that aspect of not being able to solve some of the fears Australia had."

Apart from Smith's comments, CSA issued a statement in which it said every effort had been made to meet Australia's "changing demands", pointing out that a Test series against Sri Lanka and a current tour by the Pakistan women's team had been organised without any problems.

It had been originally planned that both the South African and Australian teams would stay in a bio-secure bubble at a country club situated between the Test venues in Johannesburg and Centurion.

But CSA medical officer Shuaib Manjra said it had been arranged that Australia would have exclusive use of the country club, with the hosts staying in a separate facility.

"CSA had also committed to importing an Australian tracking system at great cost to ensure proper tracking of close contacts in the event of a positive test," said Dr Manjra.

"The touring team was also going to be granted VIP access through the airports, after government intervention to ensure this privilege.

"These are just some of the protocols that CSA was to put in place. We had really gone the extra mile to make sure that the tour would proceed."

(With AFP inputs)

By Salman Anjum - 03 Feb, 2021

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