India-South Africa series called off due to COVID-19 threat

PTI, Mar 13, 2020, 6:08 PM IST

New Delhi: The two remaining ODIs between India and South Africa in Lucknow and Kolkata were on Friday called off owing to the COVID-19 threat as the country’s sports calendar continued to go haywire because of the global pandemic.

“With the IPL being postponed, it only made sense that at this point in time, this series is also called off. The country is facing a serious pandemic,” a top BCCI official told PTI.

The first ODI between the two sides in Dharamsala was washed out. Both the sides had reached Lucknow on Friday.

“The South African team will come to Delhi and leave by taking at the earliest available flight,” he added.

The matches were earlier planned to be held behind closed doors due to the government directive, which asked for sporting events to be shut for fans in view of the pandemic.

The IPL was on Friday pushed to April 15 from its scheduled March 29 start. India has recorded more than 80 positive cases so far with the global infected count standing at over 100,000.

The death toll because of the virus has gone beyond 5,000 internationally.