Cricket South Africa (CSA) has submitted a dispute to the International Cricket Council (ICC) over the cancellation of Australia’s three-match Test tour that was to have begun this month.
Australia announced the cancellation at the beginning of February, citing concerns about the risk of Covid-19 infection.
CSA has formally requested the ICC to intervene. The issue has been submitted to the ICC’s dispute resolution council.
According to Sport24, CSA’s acting chief executive officer, Pholetsi Moseki, requested the ICC to ascertain whether Australia’s reasons for cancelling the tour were valid.
‘Based on both our correspondence with CA [Cricket Australia] and recent media reports, it is also obvious that the respective parties do not agree on whether the cancellation amounts to “Acceptable Non-Compliance”,’ Moseki wrote.
CSA first approached the ICC on 4 February to consider whether CA’s cancellation of the tour ‘was reasonable, in good faith and whether the action (tour cancellation) constituted “acceptable non-compliance” or “unacceptable non-compliance” in terms of the 2019-2021 World Test Championship’.
The CSA is now pushing the ICC to act based on the rules applicable to the World Test Championship (WTC), of which this series was to form part.
If the parties don’t agree to reschedule the tour within the ‘Competition Window’ (and don’t agree that the failure constitutes Acceptable Non-Compliance, then the ICC must make a decision after an independent consultant has investigated the issues and reported back to the ICC.
CSA’s acting Members’ Council president Rihan Richards said: ‘The perception that has been created is that SA can’t do its Covid-19 homework and we can’t make a bio-secure environment. It has a major impact on affiliates, and it can affect everything within your structures. We were very disheartened by the action.’