England’s white-ball tour of South Africa this winter WILL go ahead England’s white-ball tour of South Africa will go ahead from November 27-December 9

England’s white-ball tour of South Africa will go ahead next month after government ministers gave the matches the green light.

Sportsmail reported last week that they were privately in favour and Cricket South Africa have confirmed three Twenty20 and three 50-over internationals will take place between November 27 and December 9.

Two of the T20s will be played at Newlands, with the other at Paarl, while the 50-over matches will see the reverse split.

Confirmation of the tour had been delayed because of a power vacuum in South African cricket, with the board refusing to respond to the government’s demands that they step down because of incompetence and mismanagement.

But England are now due to arrive in South Africa in mid-November as part of bio-secure Covid-19 protocols.

News of the tour comes a few days after England captain Eoin Morgan warned England players will pull out of tours to protect their mental health due to the strains of life in cricket’s bio-secure bubbles.

Speaking at an online event for cricket charity Chance to Shine, World Cup-winning captain Morgan reflected on the need to listen to individuals who ask to be released following months of being restricted to hotel rooms and cricket grounds.

“We’ve spoken about this as a team and we’ve accepted that guys will come in and out of the bubble as they feel it is affecting their mental health,” Morgan said.

“I do think we will see people pull out of tours. That is just going to be the reality of things. I don’t think people should look down on it and they shouldn’t feel like people aren’t doing their job or not committing to their country.

“You can drill a player mentally and physically and it can cause extreme burn out, which no one wants to see.

“That is a reactive way of dealing with things and we want to be at the forefront of making it acceptable for people to say ‘I need to spend time with my family now and I’m taking this tour off’ just because of the extraordinary circumstances.”

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