Cricket Australia hopes to reschedule its tour of South Africa ‘as soon as possible’ if all the safety requirements can be guaranteed.

That is according to CA interim CEO Nick Hockley, who is eager to restore the relationship with Cricket South Africa after a few turbulent weeks.

The CSA board was left furious at the Australians’ decision to pull out of their proposed tour of the country at the end of this month.

Cricket Australia cited an’ unacceptable level of health and safety risk to players, support staff and the community’ amid the Covid-19 second-wave surge in South Africa.

With the curve beginning to flatten at the time, CSA implemented strict measures and protocols, at a massive cost, to safely accommodate the Australians.

Hockley, though, says the first step now is to finalise dates for a new tour of South Africa.

‘We would like to reschedule it as soon as possible, providing it is safe to do so, and there is time available in the calendar,’ he told reporters in Australia.

‘Now, that’s not a simple task. Through the pandemic and quarantine periods there is a lot of cricket that has been rescheduled.

‘But we’re right in the middle of constructive discussions and hopefully those discussions will be resolved soon.’

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Last month CSA lodged an official dispute with the ICC over the severe financial loss the organisation suffered due to Cricket Australia’s postponement of the tour.

Director of cricket Graeme Smith also admitted to local media that the current relationship with their Australian counterparts is ‘definitely strained at this stage’.

‘We’ve had some initial engagements with the operational side of Cricket Australia and it hasn’t been positive on trying to find a window but we are working hard on it,’ Smith said at the time.