Cricket Australia on Tuesday (February 2) confirmed that they have decided to postpone the 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.

Taking to Twitter, CA wrote: “Today we informed Cricket South Africa that we believe we have no choice but to postpone the forthcoming Qantas Tour of South Africa due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

CA also released a statement, quoting interim CEO Nick Hockley, which says that travelling to South Africa posed “unacceptable” risk to the touring party.

“Due to the public health situation in South Africa, which includes a second wave and new variant of the virus, and following extensive due diligence with medical experts, it has become clear that traveling from Australia to South Africa at this current time poses an unacceptable level of health and safety risk to our players, support staff and the community,” Hockley said in a statement.

“We acknowledge the significant amount of work by CSA in planning for the tour, during which we made it clear that CA was prepared to take on additional cost and effort to make the series happen.

“This decision has not been made lightly and we are extremely disappointed, especially given the importance of continuing international cricket at this time, our valued relationship with CSA, and our aspirations to compete in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship,” he added.

The CA CEO further said that they look forward to playing against South Africa at a date to be confirmed in due course.

Meanwhile, Australia are slated to tour New Zealand later this month for five T20Is. The series will run from February 22 to March 7.