South African players in favour of new schedule

The South African players have come out in support of the new schedule for their Indian tour next year which proposes two Tests and three ODIs instead of the originally planned five-ODI series. Following Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola's admission on Friday that it was possible to accommodate the BCCI's request, the South African Players Association [SACA] said the players were open and happy to play more Tests instead of ODIs on the tour scheduled for February-March 2010.

"We as players are actually in favour of that," Tony Irish, SACA's CEO , told Cricinfo. "We would prefer to go there [India] and play two Tests and three one-dayers rather than playing five-ODI series." Irish also said SACA had been aware of the BCCI's request because the players' body was closely involved in the planning and finalising of tour schedules.

Explaining the reasons behind the players favouring the new proposal, Irish said the most important factor was that the teams would get to play more Test cricket, which would be a boost for the longer form of the game. "Firstly we played so little Test cricket this year [2009] so we are keen to play [more] Test matches. Then we also want to play because India are No. 1 and we are No. 2. It is also good for Test cricket as this shows support for the longer version."

Players have been up in arms against the existing Future Tours Programme due to the the dearth of Tests in the calendar. This year India played just six Tests and are scheduled to play seven in 2010 (not including the proposed two matches against South Africa). That figure could be trimmed to five as the two Tests against Zimbabwe are yet to be finalised. South Africa are scheduled to play five more Tests in 2010 compared to the six in 2009. "We believe that it is vital to play as much Test cricket as possible because the players believe it is the pinnacle of cricket," Irish said.

Irish admitted that the last-minute request from the Indian board was not "ideal" but felt it was necessary to "compromise" for the betterment of Test cricket. "It is not ideal but scheduling in cricket is not ideal because of the way everyone is packing more and more cricket in. But there has to be a set of compromises and we are making some now in order to play Test cricket."

Asked if there were any concerns the players had Irish said they did not want to miss out on playing the Pro20, South Africa's domestic Twenty20 competition, and hence were keen that both boards try and work out the right dates to enable the players to get back in time to play the tournament. "One of the downsides is that our national players might miss the semi-finals and the finals of the Pro20 domestic competition," said Irish. "If that can be accommodated that will be good."

The first round of Standard Bank Pro20 semi-finals are due to start on February 24, with the second round beginning on March 3 and the final on March 12, so the CSA is trying to push back those dates by at least a week to accommodate the BCCI request. "There are a couple of issues about getting the dates right: we would need to arrive earlier than what was proposed by India," said Irish. "We would also need to get our ODI specialists early because there is a very small gap between the end of the proposed Test series and the ODIs."