The emergence of a new variant of COVID-19 in South Africa could potentially disrupt the South African cricket summer.

The Proteas summer consists of an ongoing home series against the Netherlands, followed by a high-profile all-format series against India, and ODI and T20 series against the West Indies women’s team ahead of the World Cup.

There are reports of meetings taking place between Cricket South Africa and the Netherlands cricket team management to determine the fate of the rest of the ODI series.

Cases were confirmed cases have been identified in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana so far.

According to EWN, Germany and Italy on Friday joined Britain in banning most travel from South Africa as governments scramble to prevent the spread of a new COVID-19 variant with a large number of mutations.