‘CSA Enjoys A Good Relationship With BCCI’
Feb 17, 2017 at 12:31 PM
Cricket South Africa (CSA) might take the dire step of not sending their players to the Indian Premier League (IPL) if their Indian counterparts refuse to lend their support to South African board’s newly-planned cricketing league – the T20 Global Destination League.
The competition will be similar to other major T20 tournaments around the world such as the IPL, BBL and CPL and will be South Africa’s premier event in the format. It’ll be a completely separate event from South Africa’s existing domestic T20 league, Ram-Slam.
Meanwhile, CSA’s chief executive Haroon Lorgat is not willing to make any comment on all the speculations if the BCCI does not support the CSA’s new venture.
“I would not want to speculate on outcomes that we have not yet fully considered internally or with the BCCI,” Lorgat told TOI in an interview to discuss CSA’s upcoming T20 league.
Lorgat further said the board has learnt from its mistake in the past and other successful leagues across the globe. Ram-Slam tournament has been marred with spot-fixing scandals in recent years and CSA would be keen to build a tournament that would curb the fixing menace apart from challenging the best leagues in the world.
“This time, we have done our homework, learning from our own past and other successful leagues around the world,” he said.
The former ICC CEO also acknowledged the support of the BCCI would be ‘absolutely beneficial’ for the new cricket league. He further said his frosty relationship with the BCCI was in the past, and the two boards have buried the hatched now.
“It would be absolutely beneficial to Cricket South Africa if BCCI extends its support and blessings. We enjoy a good relationship with the Indian board, as has been the case in the past except for that one period,” he said
“The acrimony that you refer to is water under the bridge. There was a time when the relationship was acrimonious but both the countries have worked through it,” he added.
Lorgat did not give any details of those acrimonious times but it is well known in the cricketing circle the BCCI was not very pleased with him during his tenure as the ICC chief from 2008 to 2012. The Indian Cricket Board had vehemently opposed the Decision Review System (DRS) and the Lord Woolf Commission, which was proposed by Lorgat. The matters only deteriorated when CSA appointed Lorgat as their CEO despite BCCI’s opposition.