Cricket South Africa Takes U-Turn; WTC Bound Players Likely To Stay For IPL Playoffs

Proteas players back in IPL [Source: AP Photo]

In the latest development, Cricket South Africa has taken a U-turn and now, the World Test Championship (WTC) bound IPL players will stay in India to play the playoffs and the finals. Earlier, it was reported that the South African board had urged its players to assemble together on May 26 to depart for England.

Cricket South Africa Takes U-Turn on IPL playoffs

However, as per a report by The Age, the BCCI has managed to convince them to allow the WTC bound players to stay till the league ends on June 3.

“One thing we’ve made clear, and we are finalising it with the IPL and the BCCI, is that we are sticking to our original plan when it comes to WTC preparations with May 26 being the latest for the Test guys to come back,” CSA’s director of cricket Enoch Nkwe said, a couple of days earlier.

However, he then took a U-turn and stated that the conversation is going well between BCCI and Cricket South Africa and the squad will resume training on June 3.

“Correction – the squad will resume training for the game on June 3rd,” he said. “The matter is being discussed higher up than me. At ground level, we are focusing on preps for the WTC final.”

Proteas players to have little time for WTC preps

In case the Proteas players stay in India for the playoffs and the finale, they will have little time to prepare for the WTC finals, which will hand Australia an early advantage since most of their WTC bound stars will not go back to India and instead, will stay back and prepare for the finals.

The South African side is scheduled to play a warm-up match Vs Zimbabwe on June 3, but now, it seems that game will also be postponed.

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