Sri Lanka’s tour of South Africa for a two-match Test series in December is in serious doubt due to the sudden increase in Covid-19 cases in the hosting country, Cricket Age reliably learns.
Sri Lanka is scheduled to depart for South Africa on 12 December, and the first Test is slated to be played on 18 December, but due to the rise in covid-19 cases the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) top officials are in talks with the counterpart regarding the postponement of the tour.
As of yesterday, a cumulative total of 635 078 confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa have been recorded with 2072 new cases identified and 174 more people died from the virus, taking the number of fatalities to 14,563.
Cricket Age had published on August 28 itself that the SLC is planning to replace the tour with a T10 tournament.
“The Situation there (South Africa) is not good and we are reluctant to expose our players amid Coronavirus scare. So, the best option for us is to postpone the tour and instead play a T10 tournament at home” a top SLC administrator told Cricket Age.
It is noteworthy that Sri Lanka remains as one of the least affected country in the World from the deadly virus. The SLC has already successfully organized Major League Tier ‘A’ domestic tournament and the country is considered as safest place to play international cricket. In this scenario, SLC is not in favor of exposing it’s player against Covid-19 pandemic by playing in other countries.
