Cricket boards from South Africa and Sri Lanka on Monday (April 20) jointly announced the postponement of two countries' scheduled limited-overs series in the Island nation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Proteas were due to fly across to play three ODIs and three T20Is against the Lankans in the first half of June. But in wake of the deadly outbreak, the two nations found it fit to suspend the series indefinitely. 

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"It is very sad that we have been forced to take this step & we will re-schedule the tour as soon as cricket returns to a sense of normality & our international fixture list allows," Cricket South Africa (CSA) CEO Jacques Faul said in a media release. 

The three-match ODI series would've been South Africa's first in the new ICC ODI Super League, part of qualification pathway towards the 2023 World Cup in India. 

"Our Proteas would not have been able to prepare properly taking our own lockdown situation into account and, more importantly, health considerations for our players, which are always paramount, were the over-riding factor."

“It would have been a particularly important tour for us with the 3 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," added Faul. 

"It is 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."

This is South Africa's second successive bilateral commitment to be postponed. In March, the team was due to play a three-match ODI series in India, but the fear of COVID-19 spread led the BCCI and CSA to mutually agree to suspend those games. 

CSA had conducted medical tests, which thankfully proved negative, and asked all the players who came back from India to go on quarantine.