South Africa’s tours of Sri Lanka, West Indies postponed indefinitely

The South Africa men’s cricket team’s tours of West Indies and Sri Lanka have been postponed indefinitely in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that continues to threaten the entire world.

South Africa were originally slated to play two-match Test series and five T20Is against West Indies in July-August and three ODIs and as many T20Is against Sri Lanka in June. However, the two tours were postponed earlier due to the novel virus.

Now, Cricket South Africa (CSA) director of cricket Graeme Smith confirmed the postponement of the national side’s series against Caribbean side and Sri Lanka indefinitely after failure to find a time window for the same with Indian Premier League (IPL) being fitted in.

“West Indies has been postponed indefinitely. We are struggling to find a time with the IPL being fitted in.It looks like our players are going to be needed from the beginning of September, government-permitting, and travel permitting. Sri Lanka also [postponed]. I expect that once things get up and running, our team, on the men’s side, I would say from November onwards, if all goes well, it will be a really busy period for South African cricket, probably playing in times that we haven’t played before and trying to cram in a lot of the missed tours,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Smith as saying.

Cricket West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave had earlier stated that they are looking to host South Africa for either five T20Is or two Tests in September.There is a slim gap between the Caribbean Premier League (CPL)–which is ending on September 10 in Trinidad and the Indian Premier League (IPL)–which is set to begin on September 19 in the UAE. 

However, Smith ended the possibility of the bilateral series on Saturday, saying that the national side’s players will be needed in the IPL.