Current COVID-19 situation does not augur well for future tours

England’s two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in January will depend largely on the call the ECB will take on the health guidelines issued by the Health Ministry

• Series against South Africa, England in the pipeline

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The current COVID-19 situation which the country is undergoing does not at all augur well for our national cricketers who have been starved of international competition since March this year.

Sri Lanka Cricket has made several attempts to get a series going albeit the Bangladesh tour to this country for three Tests and also a SLC President’s 50-over tournament, both of which unfortunately failed to take place due to the pandemic.

Bangladesh found the 14-day quarantine period which any persons travelling to the country has to undergo too stringent for their cricketers to undergo ahead of a Test series, while the SLC President’s 50-over tournament that was scheduled to take place from 14-20 October had to be indefinitely postponed due to the current COVID-19 situation.

“We wanted our cricketers to play before the LPL (Lanka Premier League) in a competitive environment and we organised a four-team SLC President’s 50-over tournament but unfortunately we had to postpone it,” said Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva.

“Immediately after the LPL our cricketers are supposed to go to South Africa in December but we have yet to confirm that tour. Again it depends on the present situation in South Africa before we can go ahead with it,” he said.

Sri Lanka are due to tour South Africa in December-January for two Tests which are part of the ICC Test Championships which has been derailed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic that has disrupted the entire international cricket calendar.

The situation in South Africa is that there has been no competitive cricket since March, when the country went into lockdown. South Africa has been among the worst affected countries in the coronavirus pandemic and has, to-date, recorded the eighth-most infections in the world at 683,242 cases.

South Africa’s borders were opened for limited international travel on 1 October, as the country further eased its lockdown regulations, but no international sport is permitted just yet. 

“After South Africa, England are supposed to come here in the month of January. As things keep on changing every day we have to assess the situation and see how we can move forward,” said De Silva.

“The England tour is almost 90% confirmed, subject to the health guidelines they will take a call. We are engaged in discussions and the tour is almost in the process of being finalised,” he said.

“If the tour is to come through they will have to go through the 14 days of quarantine and all that have to be shared with them. We need to have a further discussion with the Health Ministry before the health guidelines against England as things can keep on changing,” De Silva added.

“We don’t want to send the current guidelines to them because depending on the situation it can change. We have to share it with England at least by the end of October,” he said.

England were due to commence a two-Test series which was part of the ICC Test Championships in March, but the growing threat of the corona virus outbreak forced both Cricket Boards to postpone the series which has now been re-scheduled for January 2021.