/ 8 December 2009

Proteas confirm no Tests scheduled for India tour

Gerald Majola confirmed on Monday that the South African tour of India early next year will be a limited-overs only tour, with no Tests played.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive Gerald Majola confirmed on Monday that the South African tour of India early next year will be a limited-overs only tour, with no Tests played.

However, Majola said the decision not to have a full tour with Test matches as well as one-day internationals had been taken some time ago, and was not in response to India ousting South Africa from the top spot in the ICC world rankings at the weekend.

”The schedule is very crowded, with the Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies and the IPL [Indian Premier League] next year, so w agreed with the BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] that next year’s tour would be one-dayers only,” said Majola.

”We will play the Test matches at a later stage that is convenient for both countries,” he said.

Majola said that the BCCI had wanted South Africa to reschedule the England tour of South Africa, so that the South African tour of India could take place earlier.

”We couldn’t agree to that,” he said. ”This tour has been planned for some time, and we need to have our Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests.

”But this is definitely not a response to India taking over the number one spot on the Test rankings — all this was agreed to long before that.”

The final itinerary for the tour of India has not yet been released, although the Proteas are scheduled to leave for India at the end of January. — Sapa