SA, India mend fences for full tour

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA - FEBRUARY 13: AB de Villiers of South Africa during day 2 of the 1st Test match between South Africa and Australia at SuperSport Park on February 13, 2014 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images)

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA - FEBRUARY 13: AB de Villiers of South Africa during day 2 of the 1st Test match between South Africa and Australia at SuperSport Park on February 13, 2014 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images)

Published May 26, 2015

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It may be an indication of the changing administrative landscape in Indian cricket or a warming of relations between the countries’ respective cricket boards, but either way the announcement of a four Test series between India and South Africa later this year is cause for celebration.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to confirm the exact dates for the tour that will encompass 12 international matches, but it will take place from October. The four Tests will be played in Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Bangalore, while the trip will also include five ODIs and three T20 Internationals.

The jam packed schedule stands in stark contrast to the two Tests and three ODIs the BCCI agreed to play when India toured South Africa at the end of 2013. That tour took place amidst bitter disagreement between CSA and the BCCI in light of the latter’s unhappiness at CSA appointing Haroon Lorgat as its chief executive.

At the time the head of Indian cricket, Narayanaswami Srinivasan had called for an investigation into Lorgat’s role in the leaking of a letter by a former ICC legal advisor that highlighted the administration’s faults. Lorgat was later exonerated by an ICC inquiry.

Since then, however, Indian cricket administration has undergone a massive change that has seen Srinivasan ousted – with a High Court ruling calling on the BCCI to conduct fresh elections for their senior administrative positions.

Those elections led to the reinstallation of Jagmohan Dalmiya as BCCI president, and the decision to grant South Africa a ‘full’ Tour of India could be seen as an extension of the hand of friendship following the bitterness of 2013. Dalmiya’s role in changing the look of Indian cricket is not just restricted to the boardroom. Several reports in India claim he wants to remove Ravi Shastri – widely viewed as a “Srinivasan man” – as the Indian team’s director and replace him with a captain of more recent vintage in the shape of Sourav Ganguly.

It will be the first time that South Africa and India will play a four Test series since India’s tour to this country in 1992. While a four Test series in India is one of the toughest assignments in the international game, the South African players may take solace from the fact that in at least two of the venues, they have achieved success in recent years.

AB de Villiers’ double century was central to an innings and 90-run victory in Ahmedabad in 2008, while two years later Dale Steyn’s magnificent ‘10-for’ proved inspirational as India were defeated by an innings and six runs in Nagpur.

South Africa’s only Test in Bangalore took place in 2000 and also ended in an innings victory, which helped to secure a 2-0 series win in a tour that became infamous for the match-fixing scandal that led to the demise of Hansie Cronjé.

The Proteas have never played a Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground in Delhi. - The Star

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