Domestic boost as Test players eye Shield, Marsh Cup

Australia's Test players will return to their state sides for the resumption of the domestic cricket season after the KFC BBL with Cricket Australia confirming no changes would be made to the T20 squad to tour New Zealand.

A strengthened second half of the Marsh Sheffield Shield, with the Marsh One-Day Cup yet to begin, is the silver-lining for Australian cricket after the Test tour of South Africa was postponed.

CA had already committed to separate squads for the South Africa Test and New Zealand T20 tours, and that stance was reaffirmed today, with no changes to squad or coaching personnel given pre-departure requirements had already begun for a tour that leaves on Sunday.

Discussions between CA's high-performance unit and its state counterparts were happening today to begin mapping out individual plans for Test players to return to their state systems.

Concerns about the more virulent strain of COVID-19 in South Africa and logistical challenges around extracting players if the coronavirus got inside their bio-secure hub were the primary reasons CA pulled out the tour, interim chief Nick Hockley confirmed today.

CA officially postponed the three-Test tour of South Africa late on Tuesday night, hindering the national team's chances of making the World Test Championship final and sparking an angry reaction from officials across the Indian ocean.

Hockley said CA had made a formal offer to host South Africa which is understood to have been made at an earlier stage in negotiations over arrangements for the tour.

"We did offer to host the series here but Cricket South Africa made that very clear that they have got lots of other commitments and with quarantine periods and the like, that just wasn't feasible," Hockley told reporters on Wednesday.

Cricket South Africa's director of cricket Graeme Smith, the former Proteas captain, said Australia's concerns were unfounded.

"We are extremely disappointed by the decision of CA," Smith said in a statement.

"CSA has been working tirelessly in recent weeks to ensure that we meet every single expectation of CA. So to be informed about the CA decision at the eleventh hour is frustrating."

CSA's acting chief executive officer Pholetsi Moseki said the organisation had already "incurred significant costs related to the planning stages and the cancellation of the tour represents a serious financial loss."

"In this challenging period for cricket and its member countries, we believe the stance taken by CA is regrettable and will have a serious impact on the sustainability of the less wealthy cricket playing nations," he said.

Hockley today said he shared CSA's disappointment but insisted health and safety protocols came first and that medical advice made the tour an "unacceptable" risk to Australia's players and staff.

"I don't think Cricket South Africa could have done any more ... in terms of biosecurity arrangements," Hockley said.

"Firstly, South Africa, very sadly, hit the peak of their second (coronavirus) wave.

"And secondly, they have got the more virulent strain which there is still lots of unknowns around that.

"As we worked through the residual risk and also some questions and challenges if we were to get a case, how and when we could our players back home.

"Putting health and safety absolutely number one, we were really left with no option."

South Africa had been reporting more than 20,000 new cases of COVID-19 daily in early January at the peak of the country's second wave, according to World Health Organisation data. The latest data showed about 2,500 new cases daily for early February.

Australia must now wait on results from England's Test tour of India to learn if they qualify for the World Test Championship final, expected to be held in the UK in mid-year.

"We knew all the rules going in," Hockley said. "That is what has made this decision really, really hard."

CA confirmed the remainder of the domestic schedule in mid-December that sees Australian cricket's latest ever finish to a season with the men's domestic schedule stretching to the final day of April.

It remains to be seen how much of that domestic season Australia's Test players will feature in, with the next Indian Premier League expected to start around April 11.

Asked if CA expected to grant the No Objection Certificates players required to participate in the IPL, Hockley replied: "We've got precedent on that from the IPL last year. The IPL has proven its biosecurity protocols, so as and when applications are made we'll consider those case by case on their merits."

While the Shield competition resumes in just nine days, with Queensland set to host Victoria at the Gabba from February 12, the last round of Shield action is currently scheduled to begin on April 6, with the Shield final to be played from April 15-19.

The Marsh Cup, which is currently scheduled to begin February 16 initially alongside Shield cricket, culminates in a block of nine games after the Shield final before the final on April 30.

Additional reporting by AAP