Seven found positive for COVID-19, two of them players: Cricket South Africa

The Coronavirus has halted cricket, like every other sport, for a long time now. Even as England is set to resume international cricket from next month, a few other countries still seem to be struggling. Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced 3 Team Cricket last week only to postpone it. Mass testing was conducted to check if any of the concerned stakeholders is carry the virus.

And to everyone’s surprise, seven from the administration are tested positive with two of them being the players. One of them has also played for the Proteas before. The testing was conducted through the various franchises at player and staff level. Even the CSA’s contracted players underwent tests.

According to the reports in Netwerk 24, the COVID-19 cases are mild and CSA is montoring the situation adhering to the guidelines set by the Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa.

Contact tracing of the COVID-19 positive people done

Meanwhile, Proteas’ Medical officer Dr Shuaib Manjra stated that almost everyone in the administration has been tested for the Coronavirus. He also informed that the ones who have contracted the virus have been advised self-isolation while their contacts have also been traced and even they are in quarantine now.

“We tested every player who returned to training. That includes our high performance group, while all coaches, fitness coaches and support staff, who returned to training with these players were also tested. We implemented self isolation for everyone who had tested positive and we traced the people they had been in contact with, who are also now in quarantine,” he said.

The Solidarity Cup (3 Team Cricket) was set to bring back the sport in the country in a unique way. It would have been the first instance for the three teams to compete in one game. However, the board cited more preparation time to stage the tournament and eventually was postponed. It was initially set to be played on June 27.

Speaking about the same, Shuaib Manjra stated they were going to follow all the COVID-19 properly and the arrangements were done accordingly. He also assured that all the players will be tested again before the Solidarity Cup again.

“We followed every precaution to ensure proper isolation for the involved individuals. We did the testing, tracing, nursing and isolation of these cases so we adhered to all the requirements. Prior to the Solidarity Cup match, we will test all our players again,” he further added.