Cricket SA frustrated that India have not confirmed Test dates

Cricket South Africa president Chris Nenzani has said they are frustrated that dates for India’s summer tour have yet to be confirmed.

India were scheduled to tour South Africa at the end of the year with the first test starting on December 26 but with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) having scheduled a return series against Sri Lanka that could run into mid-December they will not arrive in time for the Boxing Day test.

The BCCI have yet to confirm dates for the inbound Sri Lanka tour and the South Africa tour.

“Obviously it is frustrating and it is a matter we need to engage‚” Nenzani said.

“It is an issue that we need to put finality to because the issue of scheduling and putting schedules together comes naturally. We’ve agreed on content and the issue is now how do we fit in that content.

“It’s a very frustrating experience but we’re always hopeful that we can find something workable.

“If you don’t have a centrally controlled Future Tours Programme‚ these issues are going to come up. But if the International Cricket Council promotes test cricket‚ you have to give everybody a fair chance and also their place in the sun.”

CSA declared a net loss of R158.8-million for the 2016/17 financial year in what is their third year of their four-year cycle at Saturday’s Annual General Meeting in Kempton Park.

With India and Australia being the incoming tourists in the forthcoming 2017-18 summer‚ CSA is expected to recoup these losses as there will not be a reduction of matches in the India series‚ as was the case in the 2013-14 truncated tour when only two tests and three one day internationals took place.

CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat said there will not be a Boxing Day test against India but the traditional New Year’s test will take place.

Lorgat said it was a case of finding a date that would be as close as possible to the traditional starting date of January 2 or 3.

“There will be a New Year’s test but it’s the starting date that is the issue. That’s what the board is currently discussing at the moment‚” Lorgat said.

“We want to go back to India and try to appeal to them to respect the start date that we would like. Let us engage with them and let’s see how they respond but this is something that we believe is important is to retain the test match starting date‚ especially in the view of the current climate where we want to promote test cricket.”

“We should have had finality a while back because we want to have the dates announced and want to get the promotion out of the way. It is the Freedom Trophy that we’re talking about and how many people actually know about the Mandela-Ghandi series.

“There’s lots that should have been done by now but this is the reality of the pressures of the calendar. The content is not an issue‚ it’s just about getting the dates locked in to schedule the content.”

- TimesLIVE