JOHANESSBURG: South Africa men's tours of the West Indies and Sri Lanka have been postponed indefinitely, Cricket South Africa director of cricket Graeme Smith has confirmed on Saturday.

Proteas were originally slated to tour the Caribbean in July-August to play two Tests and five T20Is while Sri Lanka Tour had three ODIs and as many T20Is scheduled for June but both the tours were postponed earlier because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"West Indies has been postponed indefinitely. We are struggling to find a time with the IPL being fitted in. It looks like our players are going to be needed from the beginning of September, government-permitting, and travel permitting. Sri Lanka also [postponed]," ESPNcricinfo quoted Smith as saying.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Cricket West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave had recently said they were looking at September to host South Africa for either five T20Is or two Tests, but there is a slim gap between the CPL, that ends on September 10 in Trinidad, and the IPL, which is set to start on September 19 in the UAE.

With the IPL 2020 scheduled in the UAE from September 19 to November 8, the international players will have to fulfill commitments to their respective franchises.

"I expect that once things get up and running, our team, on the men's side, I would say from November onwards, if all goes well, it will be a really busy period for South African cricket, probably playing in times that we haven't played before and trying to cram in a lot of the missed tours," Smith said.

South Africa last toured India in March to play the three-match ODI series. However, the first match of the series got washed out due to rain before the series was eventually postponed following the outbreak of coronavirus. (New Indian Express)