The tour to South Africa, beginning the end of the year, continues to rate lowly on the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s radar.
So, while the working committee meeting in Kolkata on Sunday proposed to squeeze in a home series against the West Indies before the tour, New Zealand Cricket’s acceptance for a five one-day and two-Test series during January-February 2014 is likely to curtail the SA tour further.
“It’s brilliant that the Black Caps will be playing five ODIs against the world’s top one-day side given the proximity of the cricket World Cup in 2015,” NZC chief executive David White said in a statement on Monday, a day after BCCI’s working committee gave a go-ahead to the tour. This will be India’s first visit to the nation since 2009 and will begin with a one-dayer on January 19 and finish with the second Test on February 18. The venues will for the series will be decided next week.
The November-January tour to South Africa, for which the itinerary is yet to be out, was originally for seven one-dayers, three Tests and two T20s according to the Future Tours Programme.
The number of Tests were pruned to two after the BCCI raised an objection with Cricket South Africa that the Indian team’s New Zealand tour would have commenced by the time the third and final Test finishes on January 19. The inclusion of the West Indies series is likely to reduce the South Africa tour by couple of ODIs and the New Zealand series, originally slated for an early February start as per the FTP, is likely to curtail the visit further.