India’s women’s cricket team have been forced to pull out of the tri-series being hosted in England due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The team were originally scheduled to play in tests in June but due to lockdown restrictions those were postponed. 

The England and Wales Cricket Board were hoping to arrange for India to take part in a tri-series alongside South Africa, who are due to arrive in England later this summer, but now due to travel bans this won’t be possible.

India now has over a million cases of the disease and flights to the UK have been suspended from the country.

The Telegraph reports that the ECB are now trying to extend England’s fixtures against South Africa, which were originally billed as two T20s and four one-day internationals. Dates for the matches have not yet been confirmed but they are thought to take place in late August at the earliest.

And while England returned to training for the first time since they exited the Cricket World Cup three months ago, the pandemic has disrupted the cricket calendar.

The Hundred, which was cancelled back in March, was due to take start in July and would have seen women’s cricket on TV and players would have received salaries.

The ECB has reiterated its commitment to the women’s game by providing retainers for 25 players in June which are acting as a step forward to offering professional contracts to players outside of the England squad.

Full-time contracts are expected to be allocated later this year.