BCCI will resolve South Africa tour issue after AGM: Dalmiya

Kolkata : The Indian cricket board will take a decision on the final itinerary for the South Africa tour after its annual general meeting, scheduled to be held in Chennai Sep 29, a top official said Friday.

“What we will decide we will decide only after the AGM. We are very busy with our AGM at the moment,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) interim chief Jagmohan Dalmiya told mediapersons here.

The series seems to be hanging fire, arguably due to strained relations between the two boards.

However, Dalmiya reiterated the tour was on.

Cricket South Africa had earlier announced a tour from Nov 17 involving three Tests, seven ODIs and two Twenty20 Internationals. But the BCCI is yet to give its nod, amid speculation that it favoured a shortened trip.

The BCCI has now decided to host West Indies for a small tour comprising two Tests and three One-Day Internationals (ODI), besides three warm-up games, between Oct 31 and Nov 27.

Again, India will tour New Zealand in mid-January for five ODIs and two Tests, with the first one-dayer to be played Jan 19 and the second Test ending Feb 18.

But Dalmiya refused to agree that the BCCI wanted a truncated tour, and said the itineraries are decided on the basis of mutual agreement.

“It was never finalised that we will play a specific number of matches in South Africa. They sent us an itinerary, and we have a revised one. In any case, the number of matches on a tour is decided on mutual agreement,” said Dalmiya.

Meanwhile, there were reports from Dubai that the uncertainty over the tour could be sorted out in Dubai when BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel meets CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat on the sidelines of the International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executives’ meeting slated for Sep 16-17.

The meeting has been agreed upon after several conversations between the two over the past few days as they work towards resolving scheduling issues around the end-of-year tour to South Africa by India.