International sports meets in southern Africa halted

JOHANNESBURG: International sports in southern Africa effectively ground to a halt on Saturday as a result of travel bans caused by the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

The Joburg Open golf tournament, part of the new DP World Tour, was the only major event played — and that was severely curtailed.

A cricket series between South Africa and the Netherlands was postponed after a rain-ruined first game on Friday, while the International Cricket Council’s Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe was abandoned.

Four matches in the United Rugby Championship were postponed with two teams from Wales, one from Ireland and one from Italy all trying to get home as soon as possible.

Travel to and from southern Africa was thrown into chaos when the British government announced on Thursday that South Africa and other southern Africa nations had been returned to Britain’s red list following the discovery of the Omicron B.1.1.529 variant.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday declared the B.1.1.529 as a SARS-CoV-2 “variant of concern”.

Other European countries and several other nations, including the United States and Canada, followed in blocking travel from the region. This caused a scramble by sports teams and individuals to get home ahead of being forced into mandatory quarantine — or simply to secure a flight home.

The Netherlands were due to play the second of three one-day internationals in Centurion yesterday but the last two matches were postponed despite the tourists being unable to get on flights out of South Africa.

A joint statement from the South African and Netherlands cricket boards said the decision not to play the games came “as a result of mounting anxiety and concern on the side of the visiting team around travel bans and restrictions on flights”.

The Netherlands team will remain in a bio-secure environment in a hotel until they are able to get out of the country.

The fate of a planned full tour of South Africa by India remained uncertain. The Indian team are due to depart for South Africa on Dec 8 or 9 for a tour which includes three Tests, three one-day internationals and four Twenty20 internationals.

As of Saturday, India had not been added to the list of countries blocking travel to and from South Africa.

There were no immediate plans to curtail a series being played by the India A team, who completed the first of three four-day games against South Africa A in Bloemfontein on Friday.

Two more matches, also due to be played in Bloemfontein, are expected to go ahead in an area some distance from Gauteng, where the majority of new Covid cases have been discovered.

The International Cricket Council called off the women’s qualifying tournament at the preliminary league stage and announced that the three highest teams in the ICC rankings — Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies — would go forward to the 2022 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.