Cricket South Africa (CSA) are bustling around frantically trying to fill the gaping fixtures hole in their calendar that has been left open by the embarrassing postponement of the T20 Global League between November and December.
CSA general manager Corrie van Zyl‚ one of the officials tasked with the difficult job of filling that gap‚ says they have to come up with a plan because not having cricket for a period of six weeks in the middle of the season will not be ideal.
The T20GL‚ which was steadily generating interest from the South African public and has attracted some of the biggest names in the game‚ was postponed for a year this week as a result of a lack of a broadcast deal and a title sponsor.
“The plan is to find something to fill that gap that has been left by the postponement of the T20 Global League because we can’t have a situation where there is no cricket at this time of the year‚” Van Zyl said.
“We are consulting with relevant stakeholders including franchise owners and the players to see what we can do and an announcement will be made soon.”
Van Zyl would not be drawn to comment on whether CSA are considering changing the franchise fixtures or engaging Pakistan or Zimbabwe‚ who have openings in their fixtures in November and December.
Pakistan’s last match of the year is the third and final T20 against Sri Lanka at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on October 29 and they only return to action on January 6 in the first of five ODIs against New Zealand in Wellington.
Zimbabwe are currently hosting the West Indies in a two-match Test series‚ which comes to an end on November 2 in Bulawayo before arriving in South Africa for a one-off day/night four-day pink ball test against the Proteas in Port Elizabeth from Boxing Day.
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