India tour of South Africa in jeopardy after new COVID variant? BCCI source answers

The emergence of a new strain of COVID virus in South Africa, currently known as the B.1.1.529 strain, has triggered a little alarm inside the country as well as abroad, with many countries temporarily suspending flights from the nation and its neighbours. This decision has also prompted the Netherlands tour of South Africa to be called off midway through, with the teams to conclude the series after the ongoing ODI.

Due to this, questions have been raised on whether the 'India tour of South Africa' will go as per schedule. As per PTI, there is no detailed picture yet but as things stand, the team is due to leave for the Rainbow Nation on December 8th or 9th.

"Look, till we get a detailed picture of the ground situation from Cricket South Africa (CSA), we will not be able to tell our next step. As per the current plan, the Indian team is supposed to leave either on December 8 or 9 just after the New Zealand series gets over in Mumbai," a senior BCCI official told PTI on Friday.

The official said that BCCI will look into the factors of rising cases as well as other important factors before taking a final call

"Initially, there was no provision for hard quarantine but obviously the players will remain in a bio-bubble. Now with cases rising in South Africa and European Union also cancelling flights temporarily, we need to factor in these aspects," a senior BCCI source said."

Meanwhile, the India 'A' team is already in South Africa for three 4-day Tests. 

Speaking on the situation inside the team camp, an official who is currently with the India A team said, "We didn't undergo any hard quarantine on arrival over here since we came by charter flight and are staying in a bio-bubble. After the outbreak, a medical team from Cricket South Africa had a meeting with our representatives over here.

We were told that there is nothing to worry about since the spike in cases is far away from Bloemfontein where we would be playing our next match too. We were told specifically that Bloemfontein is unaffected by the spike in COVID cases and also it's happening in the northern part of the country."

India tour of South Africa schedule

• 1st Test: Dec 17-21: Wanderers, Johannesburg
• 2nd Test: Dec 26-30: SuperSport Park, Centurion
• 3rd Test: Jan 3-7: Newlands, Cape Town
• 1st ODI: Jan 11: Boland Park, Paarl
• 2nd ODI: Jan 14: Newlands, Cape Town
• 3rd ODI: Jan 16: Newlands, Cape Town
• 1st T20I: Jan 19: Newlands, Cape Town
• 2nd T20I: Jan 21: Newlands, Cape Town
• 3rd T20I: Jan 23: Boland Park, Paarl
• 4th T20I: Jan 26: Boland Park, Paarl.

Image: BCCI