India Tour of South-Africa: 10 match series can be played without spectator

India Tour of South Africa – Series without spectators? Cricket South Africa (CSA) is extremely desperate for the India tour to go ahead despite the scare gripping the country due to new variant of the Covid-19 virus. With huge financial implications involved, CSA CEO declared on Friday night that if required entire series can be played without spectators – that too only at limited venues. On the other hand, BCCI is employing wait and watch policy before a final call is taken on the scheduled tour – Follow all LIVE Updates

“We can play without spectators in the same way we did against Pakistan and Sri Lanka because the government knows we prepare strong bio-bubbles. With the way things are panning out, I guess the only thing we can do now is to wait on the government and see what happens. We hope we don’t get to a state where there is a total shutdown.”

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“The tour for now is still on, even BCCI has assured that to us. There’s no reason for it not to go on unless we’re blindsided by something we’re not expecting”, declared CSA acting chief executive officer Pholetsi Moseki

India Tour of South Africa: CSA CEO says ’series can be played without spectators’, Ganguly says ‘talks on’

Not only series can be played without spectators but also possibilities are being explored to conduct the matches only at ‘safer-venues, limited travel & very very strict bio-bubble measures’

It is learnt that Bloemfontein, Paarl and Port Elizabeth could be the alternate Test venues in CSA’s new plan to move the matches to “safer venues”
The series consisting of three Tests, three ODIs and 4 T20Is will be played between Johannesburg, Centurion, Cape Town and Paarl from December 17 to January 26.
CSA has assured BCCI that team will only take one internal flight in South Africa, from Johannesburg to Cape Town, thus reducing any or all other domestic travel.
First two test matches will be played at Jo’Burg & Centurion – both cities are just 1 hour drive from each other.
Teams will then take CHARTERED FLIGHT to Cape Town.
3rd Test will be played at Cape Town & all white-ball matches either at Cape Town or Paarl.

What is BCCI’s stand on the tour? BCCI at this stage will employ wait and watch policy. Though the Indian board has assured CSA that the team will be travelling to South Africa – the final call on the tour will only be taken closer to team’s scheduled flight on December 9th.

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BCCI President Sourav Ganguly was asked by The Telegraph on his take on the tour & his reply was ‘talks on’.

InsideSport also reached out to other senior BCCI officials who declared that ‘for now tour is on’.

“For now, there will be no changes in schedule. The tour will go on as scheduled. We are monitoring the situation and have been in touch with the CSA. In such tough times, we can only hope that things will be under control by the time the team leaves for South Africa,” a senior BCCI official told InsideSport.

When is team leaving for South Africa? The Indian squad will leave for South Africa by a chartered flight on December 9.

The Indian team will get into a bio-bubble in Mumbai during the second Test against the New Zealand team.

BCCI has arranged a charter flight from Mumbai to Johannesburg for the Indian squad.

What about the ongoing India A tour? The tour will go on as per scheduled. On Friday the match between India A team & South Africa A team was abandoned not because of Covid but because of heavy rains.

India A team is currenly is Bloemfontein and will play two more matches before they returned to India on December 10th. As the outbreak of new variant has happened in the nothern side of South Africa – India A team currently in Southern part of the country will play the matches as scheduled. For more updates on cricket and other sports, follow InsideSport.IN

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