CSA announces plans to get cricket up and running

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has outlined plans to get the game moving again in dealing with the challenges the Covid-19 pandemic has presented.
International sport has been at a standstill for nearly two months, with the industry now looking at ways of re-opening again.

Among the key announcements was a support fund to help those in distress during the current climate, as well as ongoing plans for the Proteas to host India in the coming months.

The board approved a four-pillar strategy on May 15, which gives effect to a few things, CSA acting chief executive Dr. Jacques Faul outlined.

The first one is that we will have a support fund, which we will be rolling out. It’s a fund that will provide support to people within the cricket industry and also to the most vulnerable South Africans.

We have to use our voices as a cricket community and also coordinate the efforts of some of our players that are already involved in this work.

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Then we will continue to engage with our stakeholders. We are continuing to engage the major role players, which includes South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA). I want to thank them for the amount of work they are doing towards the duty of care towards the players during the lockdown and their efforts at the time of this ongoing crisis. SACA’s chief executive,

Andrew Breetzke, added: We’re at a crucial juncture where the future of the game is at stake, so it’s important that SACA works with CSA in the best interests of the game, and that goes for all the stakeholders.

Faul also spoke positively about discussions that have been taking place to play against India but added that a lot of that planning revolved around the lockdown and what the government of South Africa would and would not allow.

That tour is, so far, scheduled for late August.

We had a telecon with India recently and we are encouraged by their willingness to honour their agreement to play the three T20s in August, and if it’s postponed then maybe a bit later, the CEO said.

I would also like to thank the European Central Bank (ECB) for engaging with us to make sure we follow the right protocols should we play in a bio-secure environment.

We are engaging via South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and with the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa. We are in the process of seeking an audience with the minister to get permission, if needed, to play behind closed doors.

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This will relate to the possibility of the India tour and other incoming tours. We’re trying to be innovative because it is an important tour to us.

Leading to that, a lot of good work is being done by Dr. Shuaib Manjra, who heads up our Covid-19 steering committee. We continue to take guidance from him. A lot of work is being done in terms of scenario planning.

Director of Cricket Graeme Smith, meanwhile, confirmed that the India tour was not the only one they were working on.

We’re engaging with the West Indies Cricket Board regarding tours that have been postponed and the Future Tour Programme (FTP), he said.

We’re trying to find opportunities post their tour to England to see how we can fit that series in, whether it is a neutral ground or wherever we are permitted to play. We’ll have to see where we sit towards August and what the restrictions are on international cricket.