Johannesburg – Cricket South Africa will finally gain some clarity about the end-of-year tour by India when CSA’s president Chris Nenzani meets with his Board of Control for Cricket in India counterpart, Narayanaswami Srinivasan.
Cricket SA are hopeful that the meeting will take place this weekend, but the summit won’t be attended by CSA’s chief executive, Haroon Lorgat.
“I have sent a formal invitation to the CSA president to come to India for a detailed discussion regarding the series,” the BCCI’s Secretary Sanjay Patel told Indian media on Tuesday.
Although by late on Tuesday afternoon CSA had still not received that invitation, it is understood that plans were already in place for Nenzani to head to India and as a result he is unlikely to attend Friday’s CSA Board meeting.
“The dates of the proposed meeting is yet to be chalked out but the venue will either be Mumbai or Chennai. Once CSA inform us of the schedule of the president, we will announce the date of the meeting,” Patel added.
Cricket SA have been kept in limbo for over a week since the BCCI completed their Annual General Meeting where Srinivasan was reinstated as BCCI president. However, setting up a date for talks between the two organisations’ presidents had been delayed by the Indian Supreme Court, which had put a hold on Srinivasan taking up his duties as president pending a decision about a tribunal into match-fixing in this year’s Indian Premier League.
On Tuesday, the court announced that Srinivasan could fulfill his duties as the BCCI president in all areas except any matters pertaining to the IPL. It also ruled that a new three-member panel will conduct an independent investigation into the allegations of corruption in the IPL and instructed Srinivasan and the BCCI to “not in any manner interfere in the probe and co-operate with providing any documents and material required to the probe”.
That IPL investigation stems from allegations of match-fixing levelled against Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, in May.
Cricket SA refused to comment on Lorgat’s likely absence from the meeting with the BCCI, but it is understood that the organisations feel it best that India’s tour be discussed at presidential level.
According to a schedule released by Cricket SA in July, ndia, currently the No3 ranked Test side and the top limited overs team in the world, were due to play three Tests, seven ODIs and two T20 Internationals here
Although some in CSA remain hopeful that the full schedule can still be played, given the late stage of the negotiations between the two presidents, a more curtailed tour looks the likely outcome.
The Star