Chief Executive Officer of Cricket West Indies, Johnny Grave, is confident that South Africa will tour the Caribbean in June as discussions continue between the two nations.
Speaking on the Mason and Guest radio programme earlier this week, the CEO said, “Now there is a regular meeting this morning [Tuesday] with cricket South Africa and our counterparts there to talk through the challenges that they’re facing with the tour and what our plans are.”
He added, “I can’t stress enough how difficult organizing international cricket is at the moment. I think we all want to forget that we’re in a global pandemic because we’ve been in it so long but you know the challenges for cricket South Africa to get here to the Caribbean are untold. We think we’ve got a solution to that now to at least get them into the region. They’ve only got one route they can come, which is via Paris and St Maarten. They’re not allowed at the moment under global rules they’re a red zone country so therefore they can’t fly by the UK, they cannot fly by the US, and at this stage we’re still talking about governments because we need government’s approval to host them so I’m confident that the tour will take place as planned.”
With two Tests and five T20Is lined up, the situation has gotten even more complex as South Africa’s Sports Minister, Nathi Mthethwa has signaled his intention to defund and deregulate Cricket South Africa, an action which is awaiting publication in the government gazette and could happen as soon as next Friday.
If Mthethwa’s use of the Act is published, CSA would no longer be recognised as the game’s official governing body and would not be permitted to hand out national colours, which means all representative teams including the men’s and women’s national teams would cease to exist. According to ESPNCricinfo, “The minister could reverse his decision to intervene if the Members’ Council – the body made up of 14 provincial presidents who have the highest decision-making power at CSA – agree to the establishment of a new memorandum of incorporation which contains a framework for a majority independent chair. Thus far, they have not agreed to this and would prefer a majority non-independent board which would consist of several individuals on the Members’ Council. While it is not clear what the deadline is for an agreement to be reached, with government gazettes being published on Fridays, the matter has less than a week to be resolved.”
In addition, logistically, the schedule has not been finalized as to which country will host the event, but sources contended that Trinidad and Tobago seems to be the frontrunner for the series.
