South Africa's next two bilateral series have been postponed indefinitely, confirms Smith

Cricket South Africa (CSA) Director Graeme Smith has confirmed that South Africa's next two bilateral series against Sri Lanka and West Indies respectively have been suspended indefinitely due to the COVID pandemic. Meanwhile, the Proteas' three-match away ODI series against India has also been rescheduled at a later date due to coronavirus fear. The South African team were originally scheduled to visit Sri Lanka in June for a limited-overs series that included three One Day Internationals and three T20Is and then scheduled to tour the Caribbean in July-August for a two-match Test series and a five-match T20I series.

'Postponed indefinitely': Graeme Smith

"West Indies has been postponed indefinitely. We are struggling to find a time with the IPL being fitted in. It looks like our players are going to be needed from the beginning of September, government-permitting, and travel permitting. Sri Lanka also [postponed]," ESPNcricinfo quoted Smith as saying.

 

According to ESPNcricinfo, Cricket West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave had recently said they were looking at September to host South Africa for either five T20Is or two Tests, but there is a slim gap between the CPL, that ends on September 10 in Trinidad, and the IPL, which is set to start on September 19 in the UAE. With the IPL 2020 scheduled in the UAE from September 19 to November 8, the international players will have to fulfill commitments to their respective franchises.

"I expect that once things get up and running, our team, on the men's side, I would say from November onwards, if all goes well, it will be a really busy period for South African cricket, probably playing in times that we haven't played before and trying to cram in a lot of the missed tours," Smith said.

(With ANI Inputs)