Sweet relief for England as tour of South Africa is given the go ahead

ENGLAND’S one-day series against South Africa will finally continue today after a tour beset by problems and positive Covid tests was salvaged at the last minute.

All 17 remaining members of the South African 50-over squad, together with their management and hotel staff, had another round of emergency testing on Friday night and to their board’s immense relief all came back negative yesterday.

That followed a third South African player on this visit testing positive on Thursday and forcing the late postponement of the first of three 50-over internationals due to take place at Newlands on

Friday. Two players, believed to be David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo, had already tested positive ahead of the Twenty20 series but they have now been given the all-clear.

Most alarmingly, the third player is said to have become infected within the bio-secure bubble at the Vineyard Hotel that was supposed to have protected both teams but South Africa vehemently deny any protocols have been breached.

South Africa have not named the player concerned but all-rounder Heinrich Klassen withdrew from the third Twenty20 international last Tuesday because he felt ill and it is understood he will not be available for today’s opening match in Paarl.

The player concerned was said to be devastated he put the tour in jeopardy but he remains in isolation, where he has been since Tuesday and was not retested along with his team-mates on Friday.

England’s players have been concerned about some apparently unorthodox practices in a South African bubble that is not believed to be anywhere near as stringent as that which saved the English summer.

Those concerns have been somewhat eased by yesterday’s positive news about negative results and the series will now be played today, tomorrow and on Wednesday, as long as South Africa come through Tuesday’s final round of testing.

There is no question that another positive test would have led to the cancellation of the one-day series and put in jeopardy visits of South Africa due to be made by Sri Lanka, Australia and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, concerns about the mental health of cricketers forced to spend weeks on end in bio-secure bubbles have been raised by Tom

Banton’s withdrawal from the Big Bash.

The Somerset batsman was due to play for Brisbane Heat in the Australian franchise competition later this month but yesterday announced he will instead return home on Thursday from Cape Town along with the rest of England’s one-day squad.

It was prompted by Banton spending much of last summer in England’s on-site bubbles at the Ageas Bowl and Emirates Old Trafford before heading to the Indian Premier League and facing similar conditions with Kolkata in the United Arab Emirates.

‘It has been harder than I thought spending so much time in the hubs and bubbles and I came to the realisation that it wasn’t doing me much good,’ said Banton.

‘I know the Heat looked after me well last year and I was confident they would understand when I told them I was going home to regroup.’

Banton, 22, was backed by Brisbane coach Darren Lehmann who said: ‘Tom is a terrific young man. We know he wouldn’t have made a decision like this without a considerable amount of soulsearching.

‘The best option is for him to head home to his loved ones and give himself every chance to recover.’