Cricket South Africa reports seven positive Covid-19 cases

Seven people at Cricket South Africa have tested positive for novel coronavirus, the cricketing organisation revealed on Monday. CSA had conducted mass testing of over 100 employees throughout the country which included affiliate staff and some of the contracted professional players. The personnel tested also included the franchise training squads that had been assembled after the government announced that non-contact sport could resume in Level 3 of the nationwide lockdown.

"We were definitely going to have people testing positive. Having conducted over 100 tests, seven is actually quite low," CSA's acting CEO Jacques Faul was quoted as saying by 'Sport24'.

Faul, though, did not reveal if the people who have tested positive had any South Africa player among them. "Our medical ethical protocol does not allow us to share info about people that have tested positive," Faul said.

Over nine million people have tested positive for coronavirus so far. From the cricketing world, former Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza and former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi have also recently tested positive for the virus. In South Africa, Solo Nqweni, a First-Class cricketer who has been battling Guillan-Barre Syndrome since a year besides other health issues, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus last month.

As governments across the world eased lockdown restrictions, South Africa looked set to resume cricket with the CSA announcing the launch of an innovative competition titled '3TCricket', competition, Solidarity Cup, where three teams were to play in a single match at SuperSport Park in Centurion. However, the CSA then indefinitely postponed the tournament, scheduled for a June 27 start, saying that more work is needed to stage it.