Kolkata: The cloud over Indian senior cricket team’s tour of South Africa cleared on Saturday with the BCCI giving a green signal for a three-match Test series and three-match ODI series, starting on December 26. The four T20 Internationals, however, have been postponed for a later date.
The Annual General Meeting of the Indian board ratified the decision in Kolkata as both BCCI and Cricket South Africa (CSA) had agreed to defer the dates earlier in light of the new variant of Covid-19 cases creeping up in South Africa.
The three-Test series will now start with the Boxing Day Test instead of December 17 with the subsequent Tests to be played in January.
A Cricket South Arica (CSA) spokesperson said earlier in the day that the venues for the series will be finalised in the next 48 hours, with the first two Tests originally scheduled for Johannesburg and Pretoria. Both those cities are in Gauteng province, which is the current epicentre of a surge of COVID-19 infections in South Africa.
India A are currently in South Africa and completed the second of three unofficial tests against South Africa A on Friday. The third game is set to start on Monday.
While the fate of the South Africa series was the focal point of interest, a number of other decisions were also made. There were, however, no references to the post mortem of India’s dismal performance in T20 World Cup and date of the 2022 IPL mega auction in the minutes of the meeting.
Following are other key decisions:
1. Two representatives in the IPL Governing Council were inducted: Brijesh Patel and MKJ Majumdar.
2. Pragyan Ojha, former Test spinner, was inducted as the representative of the Indian Cricketers Association in the IPL Governing Council.
3. Annual budget of 2021-22 was adopted by the General Body, along with adopting audited accounts of previous years.
4. Age limit of Match Officials and Support Staff has been increased to 65 from 60 years subject to their fitness.
