COVID-19: Cricket Australia postpones South Africa tour

The Aussies were scheduled to fly out for a three-Test series later this month but CA’s interim chief executive Nick Hockley said travelling to South Africa posed “unacceptable” risk to the touring party, reports Cricket Australia.

South Africa is currently battling the second wave of COVID-19 and a new variant of the virus.

The decision means Australia’s bid to play in the World Test Championship final, a stated goal of captain Tim Paine, is now out of their hands and increasingly unlikely, read the Cricket Australia website.

“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,"  Nick Hockley said.

“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 said.