Cricket South Africa’s acting director of cricket, Graeme Smith, on Tuesday (March 31) said that Proteas will need six weeks of preparation before embarking on any tours.

In order to combat the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa on February 27 started a nationwide military-patrolled lockdown for the next three weeks.

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Bearing in mind the current situation, Smith in a video media conference said players needed to take responsibility for maintaining fitness while at home but would also need to harness their cricket skills before touring.

“We have to review the situation every week,” he said, “but we estimate we would need around six weeks before any tour.”

South Africa are due to tour Sri Lanka in early June for three ODIs and as many T20Is. As per Smith’s statement, the tour may not go ahead. For the white-ball series to take place, it would mean a lifting of travel bans as well as the current lockdown ending as scheduled.

South Africa’s next assignment is a Test and T20 tour of the West Indies, slated to be held from July 23 to August 16. However, it would require a return to normal activity in South Africa by the end of May for the tour to happen.

Meanwhile, CSA’s acting chief executive Jacques Faul said it was impossible to estimate when normal cricket activities would resume but the board had the budget to pay centrally-contracted and franchise players through the 2020/21 season.

“The players will lose out on match fees and win bonuses if there is no cricket. We have budgeted for the amount. It is a centralised system and both the national team and franchise players are budgeted for. At this stage we will have enough capacity to see us through the season,” Faul said.

“But in the long term, even if we cover this season, we will have to look at what the situation is going to be after that and the financial impact it has. In our situation, I cannot see any player getting less money this season, but going forward I can see a situation where players might have to receive less," he added.

(Inputs from AFP and IANS)