Cricket South Africa (CSA), it seems, has backtracked on its statement of having the Proteas players back by May 26 ahead of their preparation for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia. As per a report by The Age, the CSA Director of Cricket, Enoch Nkwe, said that the Proteas squad will resume their training on June 3, the date of the IPL final.
“One thing we’ve made clear, and we are finalising it with the IPL and the BCCI, is that we are sticking to our original plan when it comes to WTC preparations with May 26 being the latest for the Test guys to come back,” CSA’s Nkwe had said earlier, echoing head coach Shukri Conrad's statement who was asked about the clash at the time of the squad announcement on May 13. However, a few hours later, Nkwe clarified his statement mentioning that a few conversations are ongoing between the CSA, the BCCI and the IPL franchises.
“Correction – the squad will resume training for the game on June 3rd,” he said. “The matter is being discussed higher up than me. At ground level, we are focusing on preps for the WTC final," Nkwe added.
It is interesting to note that all six of the SA20 franchises are owned by IPL team owners and at least three of them are in the running for the playoffs - Mumbai Indians (MI Cape Town), Delhi Capitals (Pretoria Capitals) and Lucknow Super Giants (Durban's Super Giants), apart from Gujarat Titans, Punjab Kings and RCB, who don't have a team in South Africa's premier T20 competition but do have a South African as one of their key overseas assets.
Eight South African players - Aiden Markram (LSG), Wiaan Mulder (SRH), Kagiso Rabada (GT), Lungi Ngidi (RCB), Tristan Stubbs (DC), Marco Jansen (PBKS), Ryan Rickelton and Corbin Bosch (both MI) - are part of both the IPL and the WTC final squads. The schedule clash was evident, given West Indies's tour of England is also beginning May 29, but BCCI and all the franchises will be hoping that they are able to sway CSA to let their players be in the IPL until the end.
