Australia v Sth Africa Tests: List of COVID demands to ensure series goes ahead in virus-riddled nation

There are no guarantees Australia will tour South Africa. Find out what is playing out behind closed doors to try and lock in a series.

Tim Paine talks to Justin Langer during an Australian nets session at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Picture: Getty Images

Cricket Australia have demanded hotel staff in South Africa quarantine for two weeks before the team arrives, as a condition of the tour going ahead.

Officials are still waiting to get an answer from the Federal Government on what their timeline is for the rollout for the COVID-19 vaccine and whether players are any chance of getting a jab before flying to South Africa, to mitigate their level of risk in a virus-riddled country.

CA are planning to tour without the vaccine, but even so the series is yet to be officially signed off on even despite the announcement of a playing squad on Wednesday.

South African sources say Cricket Australia has asked that all local staff who will work at the resort the players will stay at outside of Centurion, Pretoria go into isolation two weeks before the team arrives to ensure the safety of the bubble.

After isolating for two weeks, they will live inside the bubble and not go home for the duration of the tour.

Tim Paine will be hoping Australia can regroup from its brutal 2-1 series defeat at home.

“We’re working hard with Cricket South Africa to establish all of the protocols that would sit around the environment the teams would operate in,” Cricket Australia’s high performance boss Ben Oliver said.

“We’re working hard with our own authorities here on making sure we’ve got clear and safe passage going into and out of South Africa.

“They’re a couple of the key considerations of the tour that we need to work through. We’ll obviously keep the health and safety of our players, staff and community at the absolute forefront of our minds.

“Hence we’re not currently in a position to formally announce the tour will be proceeding but we did feel it was appropriate to announce the squad with the intention that we continue to work through that with CSA.”

David Warner will be returning to South Africa for the first time since the sandpapergate scandal.

Steve Smith, despite a century, wasn’t at the top of his game during the recent series loss to India.

Oliver said the biggest focus was on ensuring players can return home to Australia safely once the three Test series in March is finished, and inquiries about the vaccine were part of the organisation doing its due diligence.

“The reality is we’re liaising with our Government on the safe passage of our team to and from our overseas location,” Oliver said.

Cameron Green could be a new face in the Australian Test team abroad if the tour of South Africa goes ahead.

“It’s important we understand that environment and as part of those discussions we sought some clarification on the vaccine timeline in Australia just to understand how that would overlay with our tours.

“To clarify that point, the priority is making sure our group can go away on a tour, return back to Australia safely and we’re doing everything we can around that to satisfy our queries in that regard.

Warner and coach Justin Langer only have a short time to turn around Australia’s fortunes.

“The (only) timeline (received) is what’s been reported in the media. That’s a matter for the Government in terms of how they are rolling out the vaccine. We just sought some guidance from the Government on their advice on travelling internationally at this point on time.”

As revealed by News Corp, Cricket Australia’s doctor John Orchard sent a lengthy letter to the Federal Health department for further information and clarification on the vaccine rollout now the date had been brought forward to mid-February and the team doesn’t depart until February 24.

National selector Trevor Hohns said his panel wouldn’t start making key selection decisions until they’re certain the tour is going ahead.

But Oliver said the expectation was it would.

“(We’re as confident as you can be in the middle of a pandemic. It’s a very fluid situation as it has been throughout the whole summer,” he said.

“We have a role to play in helping international cricket to continue to be played during this time, but we are monitoring the situation daily, conversing with CSA daily. We’re certainly taking advice from our medical experts with that imperative that the health and safety of our group is number one.”