A day after postponing the proposed three-match Test series against South Africa, the CEO of Cricket Australia Nick Hockley has confirmed that Proteas has declined the offer of hosting the Test series, citing other commitments.
CSA expressed disappointment after Cricket Australia postponed their tour even after making huge arrangements for the visitors.
“We’ve been doing an enormous amount of work with CSA and we have last night’s decision, so we’ll work through over the coming weeks and months when we may be able to reschedule the series. We did offer to host the series here, but CSA made that very clear that they have also got lots of other commitments and with quarantine periods and the like, that wasn’t feasible,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Hockley as saying.
“We didn’t explore neutral venues in too much detail, the question if you think about a neutral venue is where, and there are challenges in lots of different jurisdictions, so certainly we made the formal offer to host and CSA, which we respect entirely, made their position very clear and we’ve continued to work as hard as we can to try to make it happen. But we came to a point where people were starting to commit costs, people were starting to have to do pre-departure protocols and enter into bio-secure environments in South Africa in preparation,” he added.
Hockley said that Cricket Australia tried their best but the residual risk didn’t allow them to make any other decision.
“I think we gave ourselves every shot, we couldn’t have left it any later, but in the end that residual risk, the implications if we did get a positive, the chances of getting a positive, meant we really didn’t have any other decision,” said Hockley.
“We are extremely disappointed by the decision of CA. CSA has been working tirelessly in recent weeks to ensure that we meet every single expectation of CA,” he said.
“This was set to be the longest tour in a BSE comprising a three-match Test series that was scheduled to begin with Australia’s arrival later in the month. So to be informed about the CA decision at the eleventh hour is frustrating,” he added.
If this series gets postponed then New Zealand will become the first team to seal a spot in the World Test Championship final which will be played in June at Lord’s London.