Australia pull out of Test tour of South Africa due to coronavirus; New Zealand reach World Test Championship final
Written by News on 02/02/2021
Australia have postponed their Test tour of South Africa in March due to health concerns regarding the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s cricket board announced on Tuesday.
South Africa is battling a second wave of COVID-19 and a new variant of the virus, with Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley saying travelling to the country posed an “unacceptable” risk to the touring party.
With the tour not going ahead, it means New Zealand have qualified for the World Test Championship final scheduled for Lord’s later this summer.
Hockley said in a statement: “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.
“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.”
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(c) Sky Sports 2021: Australia pull out of Test tour of South Africa due to coronavirus; New Zealand reach World Test Championship final
