Image courtesy of: The Daily Express

Mandela is being mourned all over the world

India and South Africa’s ongoing ODI series is now in limbo after the death of the country’s former president, Nelson Mandela.

While South Africa continue to prepare for the matches as if they are to go ahead, Cricket South Africa are considering cancelling the series in the wake of Mandela’s death.

“At the moment everything is in gear and ticking on, but we should have finality by the end of day,” a source close to Cricket South Africa told ESPNcricinfo. “We really don’t know whether things will change at the moment.”

Mandela passed away at the age of 95 at around 20:50 pm on Thursday evening.

News of his death was announced by South Africa president Jacob Zuma at around midnight.

Today was a day of mourning for the entire nation and Sunday, which is when the second ODI is scheduled to be played, will be a day of prayers.

During the period of December 11, which is when the third and final ODI is scheduled to be played, to December 13, Mandela’s body will lie in state in Pretoria.

Mandela’s funeral will take place on December 15 in his hometown of Qunu, which is located on the Eastern Cape.

India’s two-Test series against South Africa is scheduled to get underway on December 14 and it too is likely to be affected.

Cricket South Africa have already announced that they are willing to put their own needs aside for Mandela.

However, an inside source within Cricket South Africa revealed that the series is unlikely to be cancelled due to “the amount of money CSA will lose by cancelling matches”.