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Six players in the match are part of the squad for the upcoming Sri Lankan Test Series starting December 26.
A four-day national game between the Titans and the Dolphins at SuperSport Park was canceled before the second day of play after a Dolphins player tested positive for Covid-19. Both teams will be tested to determine whether specific players should be isolated and what the implications are for national and franchise teams.
Between them, the Dolphins and Titans have six players making up the South African squad for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka, which begins in Centurion on December 26.
“Our national cricket has not been played in a bio-bubble, which is similar to many other tournaments around the world, such as county cricket, but we have a strict Covid-19 [safety] protocols that we adhere to, “Dr. Shuaib Manjra, Cricket South Africa Medical Director, told ESPNcricinfo.” We will test all Dolphins players to determine if they need to quarantine themselves at Centurion before returning to Durban, and we will test Titans players as well. We have several players on the Proteas squad. I don’t think it will have an impact on the Sri Lanka series, but we will have to wait to make a decision. “
The latest case of Covid-19 is the fifth incident affecting South African cricket after six players were removed from the Warriors franchise before the first round of national matches; one player tested positive before South Africa entered their biosecure environment against England another two days after preparations; and a third the day before the first ODI, which forced the ODI series to be postponed. The Dolphins’ case comes as South Africa is officially in its second wave of the pandemic, with further restrictions to be announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday night, and after the Sri Lankan men’s and Pakistan women’s teams They agreed to tour South Africa despite mounting concerns after England. withdrawal.
The Sri Lankan team is due to arrive in South Africa on Friday amid assurances that they will be provided with a stricter bio-bubble than England, which left the team’s hotel to play golf eight times. Sri Lanka and South Africa will be staying at the Irene Country Club, a place with an on-site golf course, where all hotel staff will stay on-site. It remains to be seen if the six South African players involved in the Titans-Dolphins match (Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Lungi Ngidi, Keshav Maharaj, Sarel Erwee and Keegan Petersen) will be able to join them. In the worst case, one of them is among the infected players and will have to be removed from the team and, since then, more have contracted the virus, which could force South Africa to make wholesale changes to their team.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) follows doctor-patient confidentiality guidelines and therefore does not name players who have tested positive for Covid-19, so it is unclear who the infected player is. The player experienced symptoms on the first day of the game and tested positive on Sunday night.
With the safety and well-being of the players paramount during the Covid-19 cricket season, and with the upcoming two-match test series between South Africa and Sri Lanka in mind, the decision was made to cancel the match. whether the match will be rescheduled or whether the points will be shared between the two sides, “read a CSA statement.
At the time the game was canceled, the Titans were 269 out of 9. Markram topped the scorer with 75, Elgar contributed 52 and Maharaj claimed 3 out of 48. Both teams came into this game at the top of their respective groups. . All six teams in the franchise are also scheduled to play in another round of matches that begins December 20, and a decision has yet to be made on whether the games will go ahead.
Firdose Moonda is a correspondent for ESPNcricinfo in South Africa
