South Africa To Send Below-Strength Test Team To New Zealand | Cricket News

South Africa will ship an understrength staff to New Zealand for 2 World Test Championship matches in February, following the discharge on Tuesday of the fixtures for its home SA20 franchise competitors. Cricket South Africa chief government Pholetsi Moseki confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that no gamers contracted to the six SA20 franchises would journey to New Zealand. The SA20 will begin on January 10 and end on February 10, overlapping with the Tests which start on February 4 and February 13.

The conflict of fixtures successfully eliminates most of South Africa’s first-choice gamers apart from former captain Dean Elgar, who was not contracted for the primary version of the T20 competitors earlier this yr.

Several main gamers have been pre-contracted and an public sale on September 27 is predicted to mop up a lot of the relaxation, together with doubtless second-choice and even third-choice gamers.

“It is a directive of Cricket South Africa,” mentioned Moseki, including that the ruling would additionally apply to gamers whose involvement ended on the conclusion of the league section of the SA20, which ends on February 4.

“Because of the time zones, players need at least a week to acclimatise in New Zealand so it will not be possible for some SA20 players to join the team for at least the second Test,” he mentioned.

Cricket South Africa tried to barter a postponement of the Tests however this was rejected by New Zealand Cricket.

The determination is one other blow for Test cricket in South Africa, with the vast majority of future collection restricted to 2 matches, together with a high-profile residence collection towards India in December and January – the one residence Tests of the South African summer time.

Moseki mentioned on the announcement of the International Cricket Council’s future excursions programme final yr that South Africa’s decreased Test schedule was obligatory with a purpose to accommodate the SA20 in a chief a part of the season.

But Moletsi mentioned he was assured that South Africa would ship a aggressive staff to New Zealand. “I have faith in our pipeline,” he mentioned.

Elgar bemoaned the scenario in a newspaper interview final month. “It’s tough to take,” he mentioned.

“It shows what the narrative is when it comes to Test cricket and again it’s the players who suffer. A high percentage of the players still really want to play Test cricket.”

(This story has been edited by Mahaz News employees …)