SL, Australia, Pakistan to tour S Africa in bumper home season
Wednesday, 28 October 2020
In stark contrast to the chaos in its committee rooms, CSA was able to announce an impressive list of men's home matches for the coming season, reports Cricbuzz.
Having secured government permission last week for next month's tour by England, it added visits by Sri Lanka, Australia and Pakistan to the schedule on Tuesday - a day after the remaining members of its board resigned, and on the same day that government has set as the deadline for it to provide adequate reasons why it should avoid state intervention.
South Africa will play England in three matches in each of the white-ball formats from November 27 to December 09. Two Tests against Sri Lanka will follow from December 26 to January 07.
Australia will be around in February and March for three more Tests, and Pakistan for three ODIs and three T20s, ending in April. No details for the tours by Australia and Pakistan, which in turn could host South Africa for the first time in 14 years early in 2021.
On top of CSA's propensity for self-harm through mismanagement and shoddy governance, cricket in South Africa also had to overcome the obstacles posed by the pandemic to be able to put their players back on the field. A release quoted KugandrieGovender, CSA's acting chief executive as expressing the organisation's "gratitude... to the boards of England, Sri Lanka, Australia and Pakistan for their agreement to these tours and assisting us in bringing [cricket] to the South African public under the 'new normal' that Covid-19 has presented us".
All matches and training sessions will take place in a bio-secure bubble, as per government instruction, that will be closed to the public.