South Africa series to go ahead as planned
LAHORE – Cricket South Africa on Sunday denied reports that its players were reluctant to play against Pakistan in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal and said that the series between the two sides in the UAE next month would go ahead as scheduled.
An unnamed South African player was quoted as saying by the ‘Daily Telegraph’ that some of his senior teammates could make themselves unavailable for the series due to the raging match-fixing row surrounding Pakistani cricketers.
But CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said no player has expressed any such reservation so far and there was no plan to scrap the series.
“This is an official bilateral tour governed by the ICC FTP agreement, signed by all member countries, therefore it is an ICC-sanctioned match.
The ICC has not cancelled the tour and are dealing with the matter through the ACSU. We therefore have no reason to call off the tour,” Majola said.
Earlier, ‘Daily Telegraph’ reported that senior South African cricketers were could make themselves unavailable for the series in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The South African Cricketers Association chief executive Tony Irish said that “many players” have reservations but didn’t say whether there had been talk of pullouts.
“The fact that there are now further incidents under investigation is not good news. This all needs to be dealt with urgently in order to ensure that a heavy cloud of suspicion and doubt doesn’t hang over our series against Pakistan,” Irish said.
Asked whether senior players were considering not participating in the tour, Irish said: “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Meanwhile, a PCB official confirmed on Sunday that preparations for the series were going as planned.
“The series is very much on and we have the green signal from the South African board. All arrangements for the series are continuing on schedule.
We also have a T20 match scheduled for the victims of the floods in Pakistan,” he said.
ICC planning review of
anti-corruption measures
The International Cricket Council is planning a review of anti-corruption measures and more technology could be introduced to curb corruption in the sport.
The ICC could bring in British intelligence agency MI6-style code-breakers in a bid to root out corruption in the game, ‘The News of the World’ reported.
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