South Africa confident over Australia cricket tour

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has said that Australia's Test tour of South Africa is set to go ahead in March or April.

However CSA's board chairman Zak Yacoob also warned that the unpredictability of the Covid-19 virus could yet cause plans to change.

A three-Test tour was originally scheduled to take place during February and March but an aborted limited overs tour by England late last year led to speculation that either the tour might not take place or that it could be switched to Perth in Western Australia.

"We are going to ensure that our facilities are as good as possible - as good as necessary," said Yacoob. 

"We agreed that we learn every day - but that is not on the basis that we did anything that was wrong when England were here."

South Africa are currently in Pakistan where they are due to play two test matches and three T20 internationals.

England went home in December without playing three scheduled one-day internationals after two members of the hotel staff tested positive for Covid-19.

It was also reported that two members of the England party had tested positive, but both those tests were later shown to be "false positives".

Sri Lanka subsequently played two Test matches in South Africa in December and January without any breaches of a bio-secure environment.

He said that he and the chairman of Cricket Australia Earl Eddings had agreed to rely on experts to assess the safety of facilities.

"So far there is no doubt between the chair of Cricket Australia and myself that the tour will go ahead but we have agreed also that the coronavirus is changing and we cannot predict what will happen," said Yacoob.

"So if things suddenly go down for the worse and our experts and other experts say we can't do it, we won't be able to."

CSA acting chief executive Pholetsi Moseki said he expected that an announcement on the tour would be made "in a week or so".

Meanwhile Yacoob said the interim board had been granted a one-month extension to their original three-month mandate, giving them until February 15 to complete their work.

However, he said a further extension might be necessary if CSA's members' council, consisting of the presidents of provincial unions, did not agree to the interim board's proposals.

This article originally appeared on BBC Sport

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