Four-test series against India an offer CSA couldn't refuse

Sunday Times - February 9, 2014

TELFORD VICE, Johannesburg

Cricket SA’s (CSA) reward for belatedly supporting a controversial plan to restructure the game will be series upgraded to four tests against India in future, Sunday Times has learnt.

But CSA are paying a price for that decision. They are being seen as selfish and expedient and having opted to do what was good for them rather than for cricket.

President Chris Nenzani’s board initially came out in opposition to the new deal only to switch allegiance, apparently in exchange for an improved relationship with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The proposal, which was passed at the International Cricket Council (ICC) board meeting in Singapore yesterday, gives India, England and Australia a disproportionate amount of authority, and with it around half the revenue generated in the game.

Eight of the ICC’s 10 full member countries needed to agree for the measures to be accepted. Going into the ICC meeting on Friday, seven were in favour.

The holdouts were CSA, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). SLC and the PCB stood firm and abstained, but CSA were turned in a deal seemingly done before the issue was put to a vote.

“The BCCI have agreed that test series against SA will be comprised of four tests from now on,” an Indian insider said. “But the Indians have made no agreements with the Sri Lankans or the Pakistanis.”

India raises more than 70% of cricket’s funds, which means every other country is dependent on tours by MS Dhoni’s team for their financial wellbeing.

This season, South Africans found out how important being in India’s good books is when their tour here was reduced from 12 to five matches. Only two instead of the usual three tests were played. CSA were thought to have lost up to R200-million as a consequence.

CSA had damned the original proposal as “fundamentally flawed as regards the process and, therefore, in breach of the ICC constitution”.

In an astonishing climbdown, a CSA release yesterday quoted Nenzani as saying, “Nothing in life is perfect.”

PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf told Pakistan television it was “surprising that CSA changed their mind - maybe they saw things differently and with their own interests at heart”.

Ashraf refused to see the PCB and SLC as “the loser out of all of this”, adding that “our principled stand is based on truth and justice”.

The chief executive of the SA Cricketers’ Association, Tony Irish, described the ICC’s decision as “disappointing considering the executive committee will be dominated by three countries (India, England and Australia)”.

However, he felt that firm agreements between countries to play each other - rather than the non-binding future tours programme currently in place - would be a “significant improvement”.