Cricket South Africa (CSA) has thanked its Indian counterpart for allowing their players to return home and postpone the remainder of the three-match One-Day Internationals (ODIs) between the two sides amid the coronavirus outbreak that has spread all across the globe.
The South African players as well supporting staff have been put under self-isolation following their return from India after the cancellation of the three-match ODI series between the two sides.
The opening ODI of the series was abandoned without a ball bowled due to incessant rain at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium in Dharamsala on March 12.
After the national side's return, the CSA also suspended all forms of cricket in the country in the wake of novel virus.
Thanking India for their understanding in the difficult time, CSA interim chief executive Jacques Faul reiterated that the three-match ODI series between the two sides will be rescheduled at a later date.
"I want to thank the BCCI for allowing us to recall our players, it's not an easy decision make. There's big financial implications for India.
We will return and honour our agreement. We've got to thank them for their understanding in this difficult time. The situation was such that the players came first," Sport24 quoted Faul as saying.
Faul, meanwhile, conceded that the country is fortunate that the timing of the outbreak did not have much effect on their cricketing events as they were moving towards the end of their season.
"We've been very fortunate in terms of the timing, we are towards the end of our season and there's no incoming tour for a couple of months during the winter.It hasn't impacted financially too big on us for now.. We don't want to panic, we are doing scenario planning," he said.
Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak as a 'pandemic', prompting the governments worldwide to take extraordinary measures to contain the spread of the deadly virus.
The virus outbreak, which was first reported in December 2019 from Wuhan city of China, has so far claimed the lives of nearly 9,000 people and has affected more than 2,00,000 persons globally.
