SOUTH AFRICA FURY AT ENGLAND’S ‘LIES’

SOUTH Africa’s cricket chief has hit out at ‘negative’ England over the abandoned one-day tour, denying any fault lay with the hosts.

The tour was cut short this week, leaving three ODI matches unplayed, following a series of positive tests for coronavirus in the shared team hotel.

Two cases from an England squad led by Eoin Morgan (right) were ultimately shown to be ‘false positives’ but by that point the decision to come home had been made due to the rising levels of anxiety among players.

A joint statement released at the time suggested it had been a mutual conclusion but Judge Zak Yacoob, chair of Cricket South Africa’s interim board, has been left unimpressed.

He was unhappy at suggestions there had been a loss of faith in the integrity of CSA’s biosecure bubble – in which a South Africa player and two hotel staff members contracted Covid-19.

He said: ‘What I want to negate is an idea our provision of services was substandard and that there is any justification for the English saying they did not want to participate and [instead] go home. We think our protocols have been very good. The fact is they (England) were very negative.’

He added: ‘I don’t think we want an apology but if they say lies about us, we will defend ourselves. I am prepared to leave it on the basis that we do understand the sensitivities of the matter.

‘Our position is that we do not wish to blame the English, but we wish to say absolutely and completely that any notion they went away because it was in any way our fault, is completely wrong.’

Pushed to consider any areas that might have been tighter in the bubble, Yacoob pointed the finger at England’s apparent desire to play golf at an external site and their use of a net area at Newlands that had been previously ruled off limits. On each occasion, the requests were granted. The ECB has declined to comment.