Proteas postpone Lanka tour due to coronavirus outbreak

South Africa's upcoming tour to Sri Lanka, where both the sides were scheduled to played three ODIs and as many T20Is in first half of June, has been postponed amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The decision on postponement was made jointly by Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) boards, CSA stated in a release on Monday.

The ODI leg, incidentally, would have been South Africa's first commitment in the ICC's new one-day league.

"It is very sad that we have been forced to take this step and we will re-schedule the tour as soon as cricket returns to a sense of normality and our international fixture list allows," commented CSA Acting Chief Executive Dr. Jacques Faul.

"Our Proteas would not have been able to prepare properly taking our own lockdown situation into account and, more importantly, health considerations for our players, which are always paramount, were the over-riding factor," he added.

"It would have been a particularly important tour for us with the three ODIs counting for the new ICC one-day league and the T20 programme being part of our preparation for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup scheduled for Australia later this year. It is very frustrating for the players who want to build on the good form they showed at the backend of our home summer against Australia," Dr. Faul further said.

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic which has so far claimed more than 1.6 lakh lives across the world, a spate of series and tournaments, including the IPL 2020, Australia's tour of Bangladesh and Bangladesh's tour of Ireland have been postponed indefinitely.