As the omicron variant of Coronavirus wreaks havoc in the African continent after being discovered in South Africa, the country’s cricket board Cricket South Africa (CSA) doing its best to convince the BCCI to send the Indian team for their proposed tour of the rainbow nation.
India is supposed to tour South Africa for three Tests, three ODIs, and four T20I matches in late December. However, the tour is in jeopardy due to new COVID-19 travel protocols put in place by India and the BCCI is still awaiting the government’s instructions before taking a final call on the tour.
Notably the India A side is still in South Africa to play the remaining two four-day matches and has decided to stay put in Bloemfontein as of now.
On the other hand, sport in South Africa began to shut down on Friday following the emergence of the new coronavirus variant, with travel bans and restrictions on flights leaving rugby teams and golfers scrambling to leave the country.
Meanwhile, South Africa white-ball captain Temba Bavuma has shown great trust in the bio-secure environments set up by the CSA.
“I’m confident that our BSEs (Bio-Security Environments) are of the highest safety standards. Playing cricket in a BSE was a massive challenge for everyone involved in the game ... CSA has to be commended for the way that they have gone about the BSEs,” Bavuma said.
South Africa Test captain Dean Elgar said that “It takes a toll on a player mentally and yet this team continues to produce good results and make progress - that’s something that I personally don’t think is being spoken about enough. We don’t know how much longer we’ll be operating like this, but it’s gratifying to know that when tours come around the health and safety of all involved is top priority.”
(Reuters inputs)
