Australia postpones women's tour and will play men's home ODIs without crowds in coronavirus precautions

Aaron Finch's men will face New Zealand in a three-match ODI series in Sydney and Hobart, starting Friday, while Meg Lanning's squad will no longer travel to South Africa later this month

• Coronavirus and cricket: The latest updates

Cricket Australia has confirmed a range of schedule changes in response to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

The country's women's team – who lifted the T20 World Cup in Melbourne last Sunday – have postponed a six-match tour of South Africa that had been due to begin on March 22. 

The side will now no longer travel, calling off ODI and T20 fixtures in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, East London and Benoni.

At home, the men's ODI side will continue to play out the three-match Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series with New Zealand, with fixtures in Sydney on March 13 and March 15 before a finale in Hobart on March 20.

However, all three games will be played behind closed doors, with no spectators to be permitted at the venues and refunds to be offered in full.

No decision has yet been made on the team's trip to New Zealand for three T20 internationals between March 24-29, though the final round of Sheffield Shield first-class fixtures remains set to proceed as planned next week.

Alex Kountouris, the board's manager of sports medicine, commented: "These were not decisions taken lightly, but they are the most responsible courses of action based on expert advice. The health and safety of everyone in the cricket family is paramount and our actions reflect that. 

"This is an unprecedented global health situation and, as we've seen around the world, serious measures have been taken by many organisations to limit the spread of coronavirus. We are among those.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and consult with relevant experts in relation to future matches and series."

The announcement follows news on Thursday that a spectator present at last week's T20 World Cup final in Melbourne had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Confirmed cases of the infection have now risen to 126 according to the latest figures published by Australia's Department of Health, with 64 in the state of New South Wales (Sydney) and a further two in Tasmania (Hobart).

The BCCI had announced earlier this afternoon that India's ongoing ODI clash with South Africa will also finish without opening to the public, with fixtures in Lucknow and Kolkata the first major men's international matches to be affected by the pandemic.