Australia's forthcoming tour of South Africa has been called off due to health and safety concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic. (More Cricket News)
A second wave and a new variant of COVID-19 in South Africa has led to Australia cancelling their three Tests against the Proteas.
Australia's forthcoming tour of South Africa has been called off due to health and safety concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic. (More Cricket News)
A three-Test tour was scheduled to take place in March, but Cricket Australia (CA) announced on Tuesday that the plans had been shelved.
South Africa has been contending with a spike in cases in January and a new variant of COVID-19.
CA interim CEO Nick Hockley said: "Due to the public health situation in South Africa, which includes a second wave and a new variant of the virus, and following extensive due diligence with medical experts, it has become clear that travelling from Australia to South Africa at this current time poses an unacceptable level of health and safety risk to our players, support staff and the community.
"We acknowledge the significant amount of work by CSA [Cricket South Africa] in planning for the tour, during which we made it clear that CA was prepared to take on additional cost and effort to make the series happen.
"This decision has not been made lightly and we are extremely disappointed, especially given the importance of continuing international cricket at this time, our valued relationship with CSA, and our aspirations to compete in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship.
"However, we have been consistent since the start of the pandemic that the health and safety of our people is always our number one priority and unfortunately despite best efforts to agree to a biosecurity plan, the risks are simply too great at this time.
"As difficult and disappointing a decision as this is, especially for Justin [Langer], Tim [Paine] and the team, we have a duty of care to our people and their health and safety can't be compromised.
"We look forward to playing the series against CSA at a date to be confirmed in due course and we send CSA and the people of South Africa our very best wishes for a successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine and a return to normality soon."
England travelled to South Africa for a limited-overs series in November and December but the three one-day matches were abandoned after positive coronavirus tests in both camps.