Cricket Australia has cancelled a South African women's team tour of South Africa in response to the Covid-19 health threat, while it is also monitoring the situation regarding future future international matches.
For the Australian men's team, the organisation has taken a leaf out of the Italian Serie A football league's playbook by banning fans from Australia's three-match Gillette One-Day International series against New Zealand.
The trans-Tasman contest will still go ahead as scheduled on March 13 and 15 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, as well as March 20 at Blundstone Arena.
All fans who purchased public tickets are eligible for a full refund and will be contacted directly by Ticketek.
Media with current accreditation will be admitted into the venues and a precautionary perimeter will be established around players and staff during media engagements.
The four remaining games of the Marsh Sheffield Shield will proceed as scheduled, and a decision will be made in due course regarding Australia's three-match Twenty20 International tour of New Zealand, which are set to take place from March 24-29.
"We have taken strong action today in the face of an unprecedented public health issue," says Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts.
"We believe this is the right decision to minimise the risk of public exposure to the coronavirus, which the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic on Thursday.
"We understand that these changes to our schedule will impact many, but we hope our community will understand that the public health and safety issues caused by the coronavirus must take priority over sport at this time. This is not an issue specific to cricket."
Updated at 5:40pm AEDT on 13 March 2020.
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