BCCI unhappy with CSA's handling of itinerary for upcoming tour, India not to play Boxing Day Test

It seems that the relations between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have further strained with reports emerging that the Indian board is unhappy with the way CSA has gone about scheduling the tour. On 29 July, it was confirmed that Sri Lanka will tour India in late 2017, putting the dates of the South African tour in doubt. It was also reported that CSA were keen on hosting India for the during Christmas-New Year holiday season, but BCCI were hesitant to send the team for then unknown reasons. [caption id=“attachment_3772353” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative photo. AFP[/caption] But a report in Cricketnext sheds light into the issue, stating that the Indian cricket board was unhappy with the way CSA’s chief executive Haroon Lorgat finalised the itinerary for South Africa tour. The exasperation increased all the way more during the recently-concluded ICC Champions Trophy where Lorgat resided in the same hotel as the BCCI officials and still didn’t make any attempt for formal discussion regarding the tour. The report also states that Lorgat approached the BCCI with a schedule which they were not responsive to. It also adds that BCCI don’t want to give up the prime slot of the year thereby discontinuing the old tradition of travelling to the southern hemisphere during end of the year. Another report on ESPNCricinfo suggests that BCCI is refusing to play the Boxing Day Test and the New Year’s Test because they want the Indian cricket team to acclimatise to the conditions in South Africa. The series between India and Sri Lanka will end on 24 December and the Boxing Day Test traditionally begins on 26 December, while the New Year’s Test starts on 2 January. The jam-packed schedule means that Virat Kohli’s men will hardly get any rest and won’t be able to reach South Africa on time.   “We can’t make it make it in time. The Sri Lanka tour ends on December 24. After that we need to give the boys a few days’ rest. The South Africa tour is a big one, so they need to play two warm-up games, so it will take at least 10 days (before the commencement of first Test),” a board official told ESPNCricinfo. Apart from that, India, currently ranked number one in Test cricket, also want to play two warm-up matches before the start of series, which will feature four Tests, five ODIs and two T20Is.