South African cricketers given the go-ahead to restart training

Cricket South Africa has confirmed that their men's cricket team will resume full training from Monday following the sports ministry's approval.

The players, however, cannot practice in groups and will have to resort to practicing at their closest franchise venues as per the South Africa government policy. CSA released an official statement regarding the matter that said:

"High performance training squad officially returned to training on Monday following approval from the minister of sport, arts and culture, Nathi Mthethwa, on Friday."

It’s the first time since the South African cricketers returned from their cancelled tour of India back in early March that the players have been allowed any form of group training.

Competitive cricket in South Africa, in general, has not been held since March 15 when the group stage of the domestic one-day cup was completed. South Africa's white-ball tour of Sri Lanka was planned for this month, but it was later postponed. South Africa are still scheduled to tour West Indies next month, but it is expected that the tour will be delayed by several weeks if not months.

"The players will train in small monitored groups with identified coaches from their nearest franchise teams. These sessions will be in accordance with the guidelines set out by the CSA COVID-19 steering committee and approved by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), an arm of the [health department]." CSA further said in the release.

These training sessions will have to adhere to the safety protocols set up by CSA's Covid19 Steering Committee as CSA's chief medical officer, Shuaib Manjra pointed out:

"We engaged with the NICD, who were comfortable with our protocols and responses to their queries for further details in some respects. Our prevention programme, besides the regular testing of players and support staff, is predicated on personal hygiene measures and creating a sanitised ecosystem. COVID-19 compliance managers at each venue have assumed responsibility to ensure all the elements of the protocol are implemented."

South Africa announce high-performance training squad

A 44-player high-performance squad has been announced for these upcoming training drills. Dale Steyn was not named in the list, and it is understood that he is recovering from a back injury.

South Africa's training squad: Quinton de Kock, Dean Elgar, Lungi Ngidi, Aiden Markram, Junior Dala, Theunis de Bruyn, Rassie van der Dussen, Shaun von Berg, Dwaine Pretorius, Heinrich Klaasen, Temba Bavuma, Reeza Hendricks, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Wiaan Mulder, Bjorn Fortuin, Andile Phehlukwayo, David Miller, Sarel Erwee, Khaya Zondo, Daryn Dupavillon, Keshav Maharaj, Senuran Muthusamy, Keagan Petersen, Imran Tahir, Lutho Sipamla, Edward Moore, Anrich Nortje, Sisanda Magala, Glenton Stuurman, Jon-Jon Smuts, Rudi Second, Pite van Biljon, Raynaard van Tonder, Gerald Coetzee, Pieter Malan, Zubayr Hamza, Janneman Malan, Faf du Plessis, Tony de Zorzi, Beuran Hendricks, Nandre Burger, George Linde, Kyle Verreynne.