With an air of uncertainty lingering over India’s proposed visit to South Africa early next year for a full-fledged series, Cricket South Africa (CSA), while stating that the dates have not been confirmed yet,insisted that the India will be playing four Tests, five One Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) in the African country.
India’s busy home schedule consisting of as many as 23 international games against Australia, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand has already affected South Africa’s plans. India’s home season will conclude in late December and with the Board of Control for Cricket in India adamant on at least a 10-day gap for the team in order to help the players get accustomed to the conditions, the Boxing Day Test, scheduled to start on December 26th, has already been removed from the itinerary. In fact, the New Year Test is also in doubt.
But despite all these, Haroon Lorgat, Chief Executive Officer of CSA, has confirmed the tour will take place.
“It is still a full tour – there will be no slashing. The actual content is not in doubt; it is just the (start) date and timing that is the (lingering issue). It is four (Tests), five (ODIs) and three (T20Is),” Haroon Lorgat told Sport 24.
In addition to giving the South African players an experience of testing themselves against the world number one Test side, the series is also important for CSA from the financial point of view. And Lorgat is hoping that the New Year Test at Cape Town wouldn’t be delayed much further, considering that it comes during the holiday season
“It will be a big disappointment for us if it doesn’t begin on the 2nd or 3rd. In the climate currently, where we are trying to promote and even save Test cricket, it (endangering the traditional start) is not the best thing to do.This is not a fixture you should be tampering with, because it is one that works. People look forward to that event. It is a sought-after date,” said Lorgat
“It is not just the fans in stadium: that match gets watched all over the world… we know that from the distribution of our (broadcasting) rights. But the BCCI needs to also deliver their own fixtures, and I guess they’ll take the view that they do what is best for them first,” he added.
When asked about the itinerary for the series, Lorgat insisted that those things are yet to become clear before stating that CSA is trying to start the series from January 2.
“It is difficult to know when (the itinerary will be publicly announced). If we were happy to start around the 6th or 7th it would probably be signed off already. But we are trying to demonstrate how important it is for us to start as close to the 2nd as possible.
“It’s not just about local people… foreign visitors are in there (Cape Town) during that first week of January; they stay for the first couple of days the Test match is on. Most people return to work around the 7th, 8th or 9th,” Lorgat said.
Lorgat further said that the recently-announced series against Sri Lanka has ‘complicated lives’ for India.
“What has complicated their lives is Sri Lanka being brought into their roster which finishes very late in December. They only confirmed that a week or two ago, and now they are turning their attention to our fixtures’ Lorgat said.
Sri Lanka will visit India for a full-fledged series in November. The series will be Sri Lanka’s first full series in India since 2009. According to the Future Tours Programme (FTP), the Islanders were initially scheduled to tour India in March 2018 but their plans of holding a one-day series in their country on the occasion of their 50th independence made them change their minds.
“They have indicated they can’t do a Boxing Day Test because their last game against Sri Lanka finishes somewhere between December 20 and 23. Then they want a couple of days at home for their players – because they are coming for an eight-week tour.”
“It’s very difficult to have your players end a series today and be on a plane tomorrow, as it were,” Lorgat said.
This is not the first time that a bilateral series between the two countries has invited unnecessary problems. Four years away, India had cut fulfilled its FTP obligations by playing a curtailed series due to the frosty relation with CSA. However, Lorgat insisted that there is no problem between the boards right now and said that the confusion was only regarding the exact dates as to when the series could begin.
“No, it’s not that… look, this is not the first or second time only that there have been issues with setting out or confirming fixtures with BCCI,” Lorgat said.
“Some of it one can understand – even if we don’t necessarily agree with it because we shouldn’t be running business in that fashion – but look at the various challenges they’ve got: it’s not something that is top priority for them,” he signed off.