Johannesburg: Ahead of the Test series against India, Cricket South Africa (CSA) Sunday postponed the final round of matches in the four-day franchise series due to rising Covid-19 cases in the country. The CSA four-day franchise series, South Africa’s premier domestic competition, will be rescheduled for 2022.
Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s acting CEO said that Sunday’s four fixtures had been postponed as a safeguarding measure in light of rising Covid-19 cases in the country over the past few weeks, an ESPNcricinfo report said.
“Ultimately these games being played outside a bio-secure environment made it difficult for us to continue with them,” Moseki added.
Notably, this is the third group of matches that have been pushed back after Division 2 fixtures between December 2 and 5, and between December 16 and 19 were also postponed. So far this season, domestic cricket has not been played in a bio-secure bubble environment in South Africa, which is currently in a fourth wave of the Coronavirus pandemic.
However, the series between India and South Africa, which starts December 26, will take place in a bio-bubble environment. And, the Indian cricket team had its first full training session Sunday as captain Virat Kohli and head coach Rahul Dravid marshalled their players at the SuperSport Park in Centurion.
India will take on hosts South Africa in a three-Test series beginning on Boxing Day, hoping to clinch their maiden series win in the longest format of the game in the Rainbow Nation. But, with no warm-up game slotted due to the tight schedule, the team will have to quickly adapt to the pitches and also acclimatise to the altitude. The venue is at a height of 1400 metres.