Australia tour of South Africa postponed; Kangaroos almost knocked out of World Test Championship

Australia cricket team is hit with a massive blow as they have been almost eliminated from the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship (WTC). Australia are currently placed at the third position on the points table with 69.2 percentage of points and 332 points and was in contention of making it to the final of the marquee tournament that will be played from June 18 to June 22 at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in England.

Australia’s chances in WTC were dented after their loss against India in the prestigious Border Gavaskar Trophy by 2-1. They had hopes of making it to the final by not losing against South Africa in the three-match Test series and winning at least two games. However, it is learned that Cricket Australia has postponed the Australia tour of South Africa comprising three Test matches in February or March 2021 after a Covid-19 outbreak in the host country.

A renowned journalist Daniel Brettig revealed the news of CA postponing the highly-anticipated Test series between Australia and South Africa.

Cricket Australia CEO issues an official statement after calling off the SA tour

In another tweet, the journalist also shared the official statement made by Cricket Australia’s interim CEO Nick Hockley regarding the South Africa tour. Nick said that South Africa is experiencing a second Covid-19 wave and Australia don’t want to risk the health of their players and other staff officials by conducting a tour in such conditions.

“Due to the public health situation in South Africa, which includes a second wave and a new variant of the virus, and following extensive due diligence with medical experts, it has become clear that traveling from Australia to South Africa at this current time poses an unacceptable level of health and safety risk to our players, support staff and the community,” said Nick Hockley, Cricket Australia’s interim CEO.

This was the only Test series scheduled for Australia before the World Test Championship final. However, as they are not playing the three fixtures, there is no chance of them making it to the top two of the points table. With this, the fight is now between India, and England, who are placed at 1st, and 4th position respectively.