Csa

The five-match Women’s series was scheduled prior to the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier in July. However, following South Africa’s automatic qualification (having finished third in the ICC Women’s Championship), and in response to the ICC’s announcement on Tuesday of the postponement of the Women’s Qualifier Tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CWI and CSA have agreed to postpone the tour.

  Additionally, CWI and CSA have also agreed that due to the uncertainty of international travel, quarantine requirements and the health and safety of both teams that the ‘A’ Team tour should also be postponed.

“The health and safety of the players and coaching staff is of paramount importance to both CWI and CSA and with the current COVID-19 travel restrictions it is impossible for us to consider both tours taking place as we had originally planned,” said CWI CEO Johnny Grave.

“We are continuing our discussions with CSA on the feasibility of hosting the Men’s tour later this summer and will have further discussions in due course on new dates for the Women’s and ‘A’ Team tours.”

Meanwhile, CSA’s acting CEO said the situation is disappointing.

“It is a frustrating state of affairs in which cricket finds itself around the world but there are more important issues that have to be confronted and the wellbeing of our players and support staff must always come first,” he said.

“Both our men’s and women’s national teams are keen to get back on the playing field as soon as possible.

“They want to build on their recent good results with the men achieving a 3-0 victory over Australia in their recent Momentum ODI series against Australia and our Momentum Proteas women coming so close to reaching the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final.”

 The West Indies Women currently sit in seventh (7th) position in the ICC Women’s Championship.  The top three teams from the Women’s Qualifier will qualify to the ICC Women’s World Cup 2021 due to take place in February in New Zealand.

The Proteas have been tentatively scheduled to tour the Caribbean in June of this year, most likely in Trinidad and Tobago, but a dispute between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the government could lead to its cancellation.

The issue stems from the government's request that Cricket South Africa (CSA) adopt a new constitution for cricket administration in the country.  In a recent meeting, however, CSA voted against adopting the measure.  The country’s sports minister is as a result said to be considering taking serious measures against the board.

One option could be to take away the body’s right to designate itself as the official national representative of the country.  As such, CSA could not then select a national team for the tour of the Caribbean.

South Africa is one of several countries that are lined up to tour the Caribbean this year, as the region looks to recover from the financial setback of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Sri Lanka toured the region last month and Australia and Pakistan are also expected to tour the Caribbean later this year.  The South Africa series was previously reported to consist of two Tests and five T20s.