Cancelled Proteas ODIs: ‘Blame the heads of global cricket — the ICC’

"This decision is the canary in the gold mine, but don’t blame CSA, blame the ICC."

South Africa’s Proteas ODI series against Australia has been cancelled. Picture: Isuru Sameera Peiris-Gallo Images/Getty Images

The International Cricket Council are in charge of the sport globally and they should take the blame for South Africa feeling forced to make their Proteas head back from Australia without playing their ODI series next January, the players association said on Wednesday.

Cricket South Africa announced on Wednesday that they have forfeited their three-match ODI series – and therefore potentially crucial World Cup qualifying points – that was scheduled to be played in Australia between January 12-17. The reason for this is that they are launching their new franchise T20 league then and they want all their Proteas players to be available.

South African Cricketers’ Association CEO Andrew Breetzke told The Citizen that while the players are “disappointed and upset” both at missing out on the ODIs in Australia and the prospect of not automatically qualifying for the World Cup, the blame should be laid at the ICC’s door.

The Proteas are currently 11^th in the Super League, with the top eight qualifying directly for the World Cup and the rest going into a qualifying tournament.

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With zero points now from their matches against Australia, South Africa have eight ODIs left to qualify – three against England in South Africa early next year, three in India and the rescheduled two matches against the Netherlands.

“CSA have engaged with us and the players are obviously disappointed and upset,” Breetzke said. “It’s not an ideal situation but it was inevitable due to the ICC’s failure to show leadership around bilateral series.

“For South Africa cricket to be sustainable, bilateral series don’t do it. Every country [outside the Big Three] is feeling the same pain and T20 leagues is how they survive. CSA’s decision is no surprise, it’s about sustaining the game.

“Fica [the international players’ associations body] have been saying for the last five years that the ICC need to ensure a happy mix between bilateral cricket and T20 leagues, but nothing has been done.

“We are quite angry to be honest. This decision is the canary in the gold mine, but don’t blame CSA, blame the ICC. They should be creating windows but they’ve done nothing and international cricket is in a bad space,” Breetzke fumed.

Proteas’ busy summer

As it is, the Proteas are in for an extremely busy summer.

Their tour of England only ends on September 12, and their three ODIs, as well as T20s, in India are believed to be in October, before they head to Australia for the T20 World Cup from October 16 to November 13.

Their Test tour of Australia then starts with the first match from December 17 in Brisbane. That series ends on January 8, but they won’t then be resting because CSA are pegging the success of their new T20 league in January on their participation.

The three ODIs against England are also scheduled for January. It now looks more and more possible that South Africa will also have to play in the World Cup qualifying tournament in June/July.