CSA keeping a wary eye on virus as season approaches

Cricket SA's chief medical officer Shuaib Manjra said positive Covid-19 tests during the domestic season starting on November 2 will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

SA's domestic season, that starts with the four-day tournament, will be the third played under Covid-19 conditions after the England and Wales Cricket Board completed theirs yesterday.

Australia's Sheffield Shield starts on October 10.

The Bob Willis Trophy match between Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire in Bristol on September 6 was called off because of a positive Covid-19 test.

The same catastrophic impact

Springbok utility forward Teboho Mohoje's positive Covid-19 case that saw him being ruled out of yesterday's Springbok Showdown at Newlands didn't have the same catastrophic impact on a game, but it was enough to worry Manjra.

"It is a cause for concern for us. While we do have a Covid-19 substitution policy, you could still have close contacts with other players who were in close contact with that player. If we would have a Covid-19 positive during a game or prior to a game, it's a serious cause for concern because we could end up without a team," Manjra said.

"We've seen in some leagues and different sports where a game has been called off because of a positive test. What we would do is look at the merits of each case and the circumstances around it.

"If, for example, there's a team travelling from Johannesburg to Cape Town and one player tests positive with four contacts, it's unlikely that particular game will continue. It's better to go on a case-by-case basis, rather than making a predetermination."

Keep the players as safe as possible

Manjra said the players are being tested every two weeks to keep tabs on the infection. There are also other precautions CSA and the franchises are taking to keep the players as safe as possible.

One of them is keeping the games at the big six Test venues in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Centurion, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein.

"We're testing players every two weeks because of the risk of high intensity while they're Covid-19 positive, so our primary objective is to protect our players by testing them. We're also doing antibody testing to check their Covid-19 immunity. Just before the season starts, we'll test them again. There's also the other precautions they need to adhere to," Manjra said.

"We've also discouraged pre-season camps and the congregating in big groups like most teams do because they'd want to have team-building exercises. We've put restrictions on that, plus the sharing of hotel rooms, until the end of December. All players will have single rooms and we've also limited the number of stadiums we'll be using to the six major cities. We'll be playing all of the games in those six cities. It helps to reduce the travel, while also having fixed environments while having the expertise for bio-safe environments."

England has been the one country able to navigate through a domestic season, truncated as it was, without much incident and with no fans.

SA has also seen the completion of the domestic football season in a bio-safe environment in three Gauteng municipalities that are within a 70km radius.

Manjra said they've taken lessons from that and they've also been in communication with the ECB, whose men's team are set to come to SA at the end of next month.

"England are coming here in November so we've been speaking to them for a while. They've run studies on the ball and they found the risk of Covid-19 transmission through a cricket ball is close to zero.

"However, saliva isn't going to be used and the ball will be shined in other ways. There are also the umpires not keeping the apparel of the players, so the players have to make their own arrangements," Manjra said.

"Some of the people who are part of our network and medical support groups are part of the PSL's support groups. They've given us some of the learnings, particularly within hotels in terms of what the expectations are and the deliverables."