Cricket Breaking Their Silence, South Africa Fields A Weak Team For The Tests Against New Zealand

Cricket In response to what it called “concern” over the nation’s sending a subpar squad to New Zealand, South Africa said on Tuesday that it was unable to come to an agreement on other dates for the series. The organization released a statement saying, “We reassure the fans that CSA has the utmost respect for the Test format as the pinnacle of the game we love.” Due to CSA giving precedence to the SA20, a T20 franchise tournament, just seven capped players—two of whom participated in the first Test against India last week—are included in a 14-man team for the two Test matches in March.

Former Australian captain Steve Waugh was among those who criticized the squad’s announcement on Saturday, claiming it was disrespectful to New Zealand cricket.

“If I was New Zealand I wouldn’t even play the series,” he said.

SA SQUAD’S CSA BOARD STATEMENT FOR THE NEW ZEALAND TOUR 🌿🌦🇳🇿

Cricket South Africa is aware of the worries over the makeup of the Test team that will visit New Zealand later this month.

We tell the supporters that CSA values the Test format above anything else because bdUmMmf0qY pic.twitter.com

— @ProteasMenCSA Proteas Men January 2, 2024: CSA admitted that the New Zealand tour dates were set prior to the SA20 itinerary being finalized.

“After it was clear there would be a conflict, we worked with New Zealand Cricket to establish a different time window that would work for both teams for the two-Test series.

“Regrettably the constraints imposed by the global cricket calendar rendered this impossible.”

The statement claims that there won’t be any more conflicts between South Africa’s bilateral responsibilities and the SA20, “a tournament that was initiated by us to help grow and sustain the game,” during the current World Test Championship cycle.

Shukri Conrad, the Test coach, was praised in the statement for having assembled a team that the CSA felt would “represent the Proteas badge with honor”.