India may tour South Africa for T20 series

Boards engaged in talks to identify possible dates in August

Planning for resumption: Quinton de Kock and Virat Kohli will come face to face again soon if all goes well and a bilateral series is fixed.

Talk that India could mark its return to international cricket with a short white-ball series in South Africa in August has been doing the rounds for more than a month now. On Thursday, Cricket South Africa (CSA) admitted it was discussing a three-T20I series with the BCCI.

“India wants to honour [a prior] agreement. If it’s postponed, maybe a bit later,” CSA acting CEO Jacques Faul said at a virtual media interaction. However, everything hinges on government clearance from both sides.

The series is being planned to make up for the cancelled ODI series between the two teams in India in March, after a washed out first ODI.

That both Boards have the same broadcaster also augurs well for the conduct of the series in South Africa.

A BCCI executive confirmed that the Board hopes to get the government nod. With guidelines for resumption of sports training having been released, the BCCI’s medical team, in consultation with the support staff, has started planning for a simulation camp starting early June.

Mini IPL by Sept-end?

Meanwhile, Indian Premier League (IPL) executives are understood to have sounded the franchises out on the likelihood of the postponed 2020 season being staged from late September to early November.

For that to happen, the BCCI is likely to push for the T20 World Cup, scheduled from October 18 in Australia, to be deferred during the ICC Board meeting on May 28. “If the ICC event is postponed, we will start preparing for the IPL,” said a franchise official.

On Wednesday, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri ruled out the possibility of having the IPL without overseas cricketers. “The flavour of IPL is that the best players in the world come and play, and everyone is committed to maintaining that flow,” he said at a TCM Sports Huddle webinar.