Hopes fade for lucrative India T20I tour

The revenue CSA would have earned from the visit has been removed from their budgets.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

SOUTH Africa’s hopes of steadying their shaky finances with a visit by India are receding. They had planned to lure cricket’s most bankable team for a T20I series this month, but that now seems unlikely to happen — perhaps at all.

Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) coffers were in a sorry state even before the coronavirus pandemic posed an existential threat to the global economy. The board are expected to declare a small profit at their annual meeting on September 5, but losses that could mount to USD57.6-million by the end of the 2022 rights cycle continue to loom over the organisation.

So there were reasons to be cheerful when CSA acting chief executive Jacques Faul told an online press conference on May 21: “We had a teleconference with India [the previous day] and we’re encouraged by their willingness to honour the agreement to play the three T20s in August, and if that’s postponed maybe a bit later.”

That would have put a dent of USD10-million in CSA’s debt. But sources told Cricbuzz on Friday that the money, which was included in the estimation of earnings for the coming months, had been removed from the budget — a clear indication that the venture had become improbable.

A smaller player in world cricket like CSA were always going to struggle to secure the presence of the game’s biggest earners at a time when every other team will be desperate to do the same. But the bond between CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, which stretches back to their playing days, could have made all the difference.

During that May 21 presser, the deal for India’s tour would only have been sweetened by Smith punting Ganguly for the highest office in world cricket: “Leadership in our sport is going to be key, and having someone at a level who understands the modern game, understands the challenges that are going to be faced, emphasises more the people who get put into key positions. I think the president of the ICC becomes a key position. It would be great to see a cricket man like Sourav Ganguly get into the role of president of the ICC. That will be good for the game and good for the modern game. He understands it, he’s played it as the highest level, he’s respected, and his leadership will be key to us going forward. That would be a great appointment.”

Smith’s glowing endorsement of Ganguly, which seemed genuine and unrehearsed and caught his fellow suits off guard, prompted CSA president Chris Nenzani to issue a rare public statement making clear that Smith had spoken in his personal capacity.

Even so, almost three months down the line the only confirmed fixtures on India’s schedule for the rest of the year are three T20s in October and three Tests in December — all of them in Australia. That will have to change, what with the IPL running from September 19 to November 10. But it's clear that windows are closing.

Perhaps the lesson is that it takes more than conversations between two former players to put money in the bank, even if they are figures of the stature of Smith and Ganguly.

First published by Cricbuzz.