England accused of ‘negativity’

SOUTH AFRICA accused England of ‘negativity’ over ‘Third World countries’ last night after the tourists’ decision to quit the tour over coronavirus fears. England decided not to play the three one-day internationals following a number of positive tests in the bio-secure bubble of the team hotel in Cape Town and flew home yesterday. But it left a bitter taste in South Africa, where it was felt Eoin Morgan’s men were ‘negative’ about the tour from the outset. Zak Yaqoob, chairman of the CSA Interim Board, said: ‘The view I want to negate is that our provision of services was substandard and that there is any justification for the English saying they did not want to participate and go home. ‘The facts are that, ultimately, they were negative. We have gone into our protocols and we think they have been very good. ‘There may have been an issue of psychological troubles, people may have been a bit nervous and complicated about false positives and so on, which may have made them nervous. ‘We do not wish to blame the English, but we wish to say that any notion they went away because it was in any way our fault is completely wrong. ‘There is the awkward narrative coming out that Third World countries can’t manage these things properly and so on. In my view, we have been managing the virus much better than Britain has.’ England were given special treatment at the hotel both teams shared, with the tourists allowed pool and gym access while South Africa were not. The visitors were also allowed to play golf, a condition of the tour set down by England.