And it's a decision that's not gone down well with Cricket South Africa see Esa's director of cricket Graeme Smith described it as extremely disappointing while chief medical officer Dr Xu Amanda said the risk from South Africa's epidemic had come down significantly.

Graham and I and our teams have invested an enormous amount of energy and in an enormous amount of money into ensuring that this tour goes ahead.

Um so so clearly it's I think it's disappointing for all of us that that Australia has taken this decision and and very late in the day as well.

South Africa has recorded more than 1.45 million cases and over 44,000 deaths on since late last year has been battling a more transmissible variant of the virus.

Cricket Australia's interim chief executive Nick Hockley said in a statement that they acknowledged the amount of work see ESA had put in, but that the safety of their people was the number one priority.

Dr.

Mandrake complained that see ESA had attempted to accommodate Australian requirements, including a private charter into their own terminal with dedicated staff and a bio secure bus to transport the team toe a bio secure environment.

Cricket Australia based a decision on zero risk and and I think that zero risk in this world is impossible.

We worked on probabilities.

They worked on possibilities.

No dates were given on when the tour might take place in the future, the International Cricket Council said.

The tours postponement means New Zealand has become the first team to qualify for the inaugural icy Sea World Test Championship final, which is scheduled to be held in England from June the 18th.