CSA confident about Sri Lanka tour
CRICKET South Africa remains confident that the rest of the summer schedule for the Proteas will take place, despite the hasty end to the England series this week.
Officials from CSA have been in contact with their Sri Lankan counterparts to give them assurances that all the proper measures will be in place, including stricter controls than was the case for England, for the Boxing Day and New Years Test matches.
CSA’s chief medical officer, Dr Shuaib Manjra said yesterday he is “fairly confident” the Proteas’ Tests against Sri Lanka at SuperSport Park and the Wanderers will continue.
The ODI series between England and SA was indefinitely postponed on Monday after tests for Covid-19 over the weekend indicated what was referred to as “unconfirmed positive tests” among two members of the England group. That followed three positive tests in the Proteas squad, while two members of staff at the hotel where the teams were staying also tested positive.
But yesterday, the England Cricket Board confirmed that after further testing, the two individuals were “not infected”. That won’t go down well in the corridors at CSA, especially since the England squad will still only leave on a charter flight tomorrow as originally scheduled.
Manjra would not venture an opinion about England’s decision to withdraw from the remainder of the tour. “I think that the real risks are extremely low, but perceived risk is something that I can’t control.”
Manjra is sure that the bio-secure environment set up in Cape Town for the two squads and officials was not breached and the onus was on players everywhere to grow accustomed to living in a pandemic.
“The nature of infectious diseases is that they manifest in different ways and in different spaces, you can’t completely control them. I get a sense that England is a victim of its own success.”
England completed a full international schedule in its summer season earlier this year, hosting the West Indies (men’s and women’s teams), Australia, Ireland and Pakistan.
The measures put in place there were extremely strict but also very expensive.
“It was done at enormous cost that we can’t afford. England will probably admit that it is unsustainable to do that,” said Manjra.
There were no positive cases throughout that English season, but Manjra feels a more realistic and affordable option is to manage positive cases in the way they have been in the English Premier League, where individual players isolate for a period of time before returning to the field of play.
“You get positive cases, the game goes on, it’s becoming a fact of life, it’s part of public health, it's about how you deal with it. You can't develop an attitude that you have one or two positive cases and suddenly you feel unsafe,” said Manjra.