Johannesburg: To play its part in countering the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed tens of thousands of lives to date and brought the globe to a standstill, Cricket South Africa (CSA) revealed its four-point plan.
CSA Acting Chief Executive, Dr Jacques Faul, outlined the organisation's strategy to the media at an Executive Tele-press Conference that also featured CSA's Interim Director of Cricket Graeme Smith on Tuesday.
"Health is the most important thing at this point in time. The well-being of your loved ones," Faul said.
"In this context, you really feel for the poor. In our world, sport is the most important thing and it does feed a lot of people, but to be honest, the world has greater challenges at the moment," he added.
"The first and foremost priority is to make sure everybody is safe. The second one is to use the voices of our stars to send out a coordinated message and we've seen that so far with some of our campaigns".
"The third one is to stay in contact with all our stakeholders so we can work out how they have been affected by the current situation and how it has affected us. We've been in touch with them and both parties have been engaging each other and we still are and will be in the coming weeks," Faul said.
"And the fourth one relates to planning. To see how COVID-19 has impacted on us and how it will impact our finances. The world will never be the same again after this," he added.
Globally there has also been a trend by sports stars to voluntarily forfeit wages or take salary cuts during the pandemic. Some have also been asked to take cuts, but Faul had some reassuring words for those that play the game professionally in South Africa.
There are 754,948 people worldwide who have been infected with the coronavirus, announced the World Health Organization adding that 36,571 have died from it so far.
The virus has spread to more than 200 countries and territories since it emerged in China in late December, according to the latest figures published on the WHO website. Europe is the world's worst-hit area, with more than half of all cases.
