CSA’s 4-day franchise series has been postponed to 2022 amidst the fourth wave of coronavirus in South Africa.
Cricket South Africa confirmed that the final round fixtures of South Africa’s premier domestic competition, four-day franchise series, have been postponed to 2022.
CSA’s acting CEO, Pholetsi Moseki, confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that Sunday’s four fixtures had been postponed due to the increasing Covid-19 cases in the country over the past few weeks.
“Ultimately these games being played outside a bio-secure environment made it difficult for us to continue with them,”
he said.
Earlier, Division 2 matches between December 2 and 5 and December 16 and 19 were postponed due to the Covid-19 threat. As per ESPNcricinfo, the current domestic cricket season, which has not been played in a bio-secure bubble, is expected to have a bio-secure environment for the T20 and One-Day competitions. Both limited overs competitions were played under bio-secure conditions last summer.
South Africa is currently grappled with the fourth wave of Covid-19 pandemic. With the discovery of a new variant Omicron, the situation in the country has worsened as the number of positive cases, and hospitalizations saw a spike. The positive cases, which peaked at over 26000 earlier this week, now seem to be decreasing. However, the country is still under Alert 1 of 5, with the least stringent Covid-19 protocols.
The new variant Omicron has affected cricket, with plenty of events getting postponed or cancelled. Earlier, the International Cricket Council cancelled the Women’s ODI World Cup Qualifiers that were scheduled to be held in Harare due to the travel restrictions imposed on African countries.
The Netherlands cricket team had to fly back after just one ODI as the three-match ODI series was postponed. The Indian cricket team is currently in South Africa to play a three-match Test series, followed by three ODIs.
But the tour was postponed by a week on BCCI’s request, with the tour now kick starting from December 26 instead of the earlier date of December 19. Four T20I matches, which were part of this tour earlier, have also been rescheduled for a later date.
