CSA happy players can train again
CRICKET South Africa said yesterday’s announcement by government that all non-contact sport could resume behind closed doors was “massive” for the sport.
Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that non-contact sport would be allowed under level 3 lockdown regulations, paving the way for cricketers, golfers, tennis players and track and field athletes to resume training, while observing social distancing measures.
“The moment we can return to training it helps us,” said Cricket SA’s interim chief executive Jacques Faul.
Dlamini-Zuma outlined new regulations that allow for “a professional non-contact sports match, which may only include players, match officials, journalists and medical and television crew” to be held, with Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa due to provide directions on how that will occur. Mthethwa is due to brief media today.
Cricket SA has been in contact with Mthethwa through the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee’s ‘War Room’ where it has informed the minister that as a non-contact sport it should be allowed to operate at level 3.
Faul couldn’t say when the Proteas men’s players, who are due to face the West Indies in July, would be able to get together to train in one group.
“Look, we’re just thankful that now they can get to a stadium and train. That is important, even if it’s in small groups. We are thankful for this first step,” Faul remarked.
Cricket SA said last week it would be able to host matches in what its chief medical officer Dr Shuaib Manjra described as a “bio bubble”. That is essentially a large environment containing a hotel within walking distance of a ground where matches will be played and the players can train.
“It would be a sanitised cricket biosphere with strict entry standards (and) testing would be conducted before anyone enters the bubble and there would be limited movement in and out of it,” Manjra said recently.
“It requires regular testing and we will create a cordoned sanitaire, where people wouldn’t be allowed to leave or come in unless strict criteria are met.” While inside the ‘bubble,’ everyone would still maintain the regular social distancing practices.
CSA has said the nationally contracted players would need six weeks to prepare before they are ready to play again.
The organisation has held talks with the Board of Control for Cricket in India about hosting the Indian team for three T20 Internationals in August, a series that could happen in a ‘bio bubble’, if India’s players are allowed to travel and then observe 14-day quarantine periods both before and after they tour.