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The fate of the second and third ODIs between South Africa and Netherlands isn’t known yet
The Netherlands cricket team management will meet with CSA officials today to decide if the second and third matches of the three-ODI series will go ahead as planned, after a new Covid-19 variant made its presence felt in the country this week. South Africa has been added to the UK’s red list and travel restrictions from Italy, Germany and Singapore are in place, with other countries expected to follow. The first ODI between South Africa and Netherlands is taking place as scheduled at Centurion’s SuperSport Park today.
The new variant has more mutations but it is not known whether it causes more severe illnesses than the Delta variant. South African scientists will meet with the World Health Organisation in an effort to find out more. Cases in South Africa have risen three-fold in the last week.
Reuters, meanwhile, has reported that the Indian government has issued an advisory to all the states in the country to rigorously test and screen international travellers from South Africa and other countries that are considered at-risk. The report quoted the Indian health ministry as saying that the new variant, identified as B.1.1.529, had “serious public health implications”.
Top-level cricket in South Africa was disrupted in a big way because of the pandemic last year too: England abandoned a tour without playing the ODI series after positive cases in the South African camp and Australia did not travel to play a three-match Test series, costing CSA millions.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa correspondent