Will Sri Lanka and Australia tour South Africa after the recent COVID-19 fiasco? © Getty
England’s tour of South Africa turned sour even when it was canceled over health concerns on Monday. Seven positive tests for Covid-19 announced after visitors arrived on November 17 cast a shadow over the company, which came out of its misery with half of the games scheduled without playing. The decision is a crushing blow to CSA’s hopes of reigniting gambling in South Africa after the pandemic, and a genuine threat to the already shaky financial outlook for gambling.
Sri Lanka, Australia and Pakistan are due to go on a tour in the coming weeks and months, but will surely reconsider in the wake of the problems uncovered by the visit from England. Cricbuzz learned that a concerned SLC resolved on Sunday night to discuss the wisdom of the Sri Lankans by playing two events in South Africa, at Centurion and Wanderers, starting on December 26 on Monday.
The board met when news broke that England would be leaving South Africa early. They are due to be in Sri Lanka in January, and the SLC will know that the ECB could object to their team playing there if the Sri Lankans have been to South Africa. If England doesn’t tour, SLC will lose significant streaming revenue. Still, it is understood that SLC has decided that the South African tour is still on the line, perhaps because the Gauteng area, where its team will be based, has fewer active cases of coronavirus than the Western Cape, where England is located. But a second wave of infections is expected to increase in Gauteng in January. SLC is ready to make a firm decision next week.
The Australians, who must be in South Africa in February and March for three tests, have also taken note of the situation in the country. “It’s very worrying and they need to consider the safety of the players first and foremost,” David Heslop, a biosecurity and risk management expert, told the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). “Even with the best protections in a high-prevalence country where there is a lot of COVID around you, you may just not be able to collect everything.”
Monday’s statement said CSA and the ECB had “agreed to postpone the remaining matches” and that “the decision was made jointly by the two boards to ensure the mental and physical health and well-being of the players on both teams.”
Kugandrie Govender, CSA’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, was quoted as saying: “Concern about the mental health impact of recent events on everyone involved is not something that we, as the CSA or the ECB, take lightly and make the decision Postponing the tour is the most responsible and reasonable course of action for us. ”
ECB Executive Director Tom Harrison was quoted as saying: “We have always held that the well-being of our players and management is paramount. We were concerned about the potential impact that recent developments could have on the well-being of the touring group, and thus after consultation with CSA we have made the joint decision to postpone the remaining matches of this series, in the best interest of the well-being of the players. ” They were both careful to put on the record that they “hope” that the ODI will be played in South Africa in the future.
Unlike the three T20Is at Newlands and Paarl, which ran as planned, the ODI series suffered false starts at Newlands on Friday and at Paarl on Sunday due to positive tests for Covid-19. A proposed match in Newlands on Monday was canceled Sunday night.
Each game scheduled in South Africa that is not played is believed to cost CSA more than $ 665,000 in lost streaming revenue. So it could already be $ 1.9 million out of your pocket with more bad news to come. But Govender told Cricbuzz that CSA had not sacrificed revenue: “Since the ODI series will be postponed and will not be canceled, CSA will not lose as much money as it will be deferred later in the FTP cycle. So during the four-year period , it will equalize. [The] The ECB and the CSA share this responsibility. ”
Before the pandemic broke out, the South African Cricket Players Association projected that CSA could be $ 65.9 million in debt by the end of the 2022 entitlement cycle. Covid-19 can only have an adverse effect on that equation. . Testing the South African team and support staff during the tour of England alone probably cost about $ 8,000.
That three of South Africa’s players contracted the disease has been confirmed since England arrived on November 17. Two England players have since tested positive, along with two workers at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town, who share the parts. Only one case of the virus was reported before the squads entered a biosecure environment, raising concerns about the bubble’s safety levels and whether the rules were being followed.
That narrative became irritable on Monday after the appearance of an email, seen by Cricbuzz, dated Thursday, from the Newlands stadium manager to England’s liaison officer, CSA officials and police, telling them that “the England cricket team has not adhered to the arrangements.as agreed by everyone at the ESSPC [Event Security and Safety Planning Committee] meetings. “Normal field network facilities are off limits due to Coronavirus regulations and major construction in Newlands. Instead, players must use field installed networks.
“This serves to inform you that the England cricket team has accessed and used the networks today at their own risk,” the email read. “WPCA [Western Province Cricket Association] and the ESSPC will not be responsible for the safety and health of the England cricket team. ”
A statement by an England spokesperson on Monday contested that version of events: “Upon arriving in Newlands on December 3, we informed the venue that the three nets provided in the main field were not of a standard for conducive practice, as per the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the respective boards. The batsmen were unable to face stitching bowlers at the main field nets due to the surfaces being plastered and unacceptable.
“We asked CSA that we would like to use the practice nets and that we create a security cordon to ensure that players and coaches could enter the facility safely, as was previously done on November 28. This was confirmed by the team. England safety officer, The team operations manager and team doctor. We were satisfied with this result and were able to practice on installing the net safely. The team also used the main field for fielding drills, such as Sewing bowling pins across the field and various nets were used for field hits against bowlers and coaches. Regarding the England tour, the safety and health of our players and coaches was not compromised “.
The road ahead is not so easy for CSA, whose key role is to make enough money to run the game in South Africa. So you need all the attention you can get from teams like England, no matter how fussy or arrogant you are, or appear to be, putting up with them.
That’s part of the price the third world often pays when it collides with the first world. It is not fair, but it is reality.
© Cricbuzz
