Banyana Banyana Vice-Captain and AC Milan star Refiloe Jane has appealed to South Africans to stay at home during the lockdown period of 21-days. Jane is currently in Italy, the country that is one of the worst affected by the virus in terms of infections and deaths. Jane assured South Africans that she is very safe.

Baseball is going to its off season now, but this was supposed to be the time for some of the national teams to prepare for their respective world cups coming up later in the year. Moreau says they will still decide when they will reschedule their events.

Baseball is classified as a minor sport in SA compared to Football, Rugby and Cricket. Moreau says the cancellation of events will jeopardise their chances of securing potential sponsors.

All the sectors globally have been affected financially and Baseball is no different. Moreau says the cancellation of the National Champs will hit them very hard.

Many sporting events globally have either been cancelled or postponed due to the deadly pandemic that has been ravaging the whole world. Moreau says apart from cancelling the World Baseball Classics, they also had to cancel the senior and junior National Baseball Championships in Cape Town at the end this month.

South African Baseball Federation President Marc Moreau says one national team player tested positive for Coronavirus when the team was on tour in Arizona, United States few weeks ago. The SA team was there for the World Baseball Classics, which is organized by Major League Baseball when the tournament was cancelled due to the travel bans imposed by several countries. SA also has got players plying their trade in Australia, Europe and the US, but Moreau says they are fine.

Despite the assurances from SAFPU that players have nothing to worry about, there are already fears from other stakeholders in the game that players at certain clubs might not receive their full salaries and Covid-19 will be used as an example. Gaoshubelwe says they are hoping to have a follow up meeting with the league soon.

Currently the country is sitting on 1280 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and two deaths and its only Day Four of the 21-day lockdown. The PSL’s wish is to finish the league by the end of June this year and most teams are left with six, seven and eight matches in this campaign. The Nedbank Cup is at semi-final stage. Gaoshubelwe says they continue to consult with their members (players) and if the situation becomes dire for the league, the talk of salary cuts will not be avoided.

Economically the country is not in a good space, just last week SA was downgraded into a junk status by the ratings agency Moodys and this is something Gaoshubelwe says they are fully aware of but the interests of the players still comes first to them.

Prior to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) suspending its programme indefinitely even before the lockdown was enforced in SA, SAFPU is one of the stakeholders they had consulted. Gaoshubelwe says they continue to engage the league and no drastic measure will be taken yet.