No new dates set for Australia series
Following the recent
eleventh-hour withdrawal from their tour of South Africa, Cricket Australia and
Cricket South Africa haven’t been able to find common ground on revised dates
for the tour that is supposed to form part of the ICC World Test Championship.
With the series set for March and April, the decision to withdraw from the series was one that shocked CSA given the strict measures that they were forced to adhere to in order to satisfy the Australian COVID-19 protocol.
The highly publicised measures were almost too ridiculous to satisfy, however CSA managed to meet every demand that Cricket Australia threw at them only for the Australian board to cancel the tour over ‘safety concerns’.
Speaking about the way forward for both the domestic cricket scene and the national side, Director of Cricket at CSA Graeme Smith didn’t mince his words when talking about the current state of the relationship between the two sporting bodies.
“The relationship (between CSA and CA) is definitely strained at this stage,” Smith said candidly. “There is definitely an effort from our side to engage and to set up a meeting at board level.
“The ICC need strong leadership now because the COVID-19 pandemic is amplifying the have’s and the have nots and the relationships across the board.
“When things happen like they just have it amplifies the pressure on the likes of us and the other member nations outside the big three.
“I believe that engagement needs to happen to improve the relationship between South Africa and Australia.”
Given the incoming Pakistan tour in April, Smith and his team haven’t been about to find a window where they would fit in a rescheduled series against Australia.
“The March window is done now and the operations teams are trying to find an opportunity to fit it in this calendar cycle.
“We’ve had some initial engagements with the Australian operations but it hasn’t been positive on trying to find window but we are working hard on it.”
The Proteas stars will be available for the upcoming CSA T20 Challenge that starts at Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium in a bio-secure environment this Friday.
