CSA heads to ICC over cancelled Australia Tour

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Cricket South Africa (CSA) has written to the International Cricket Council (ICC) seeking a remedy after Australia called off its tour to the currently, citing Covid-19 concerns.

Cricket Australia (CA) said on the advice of their medical team they will not travel for the three-Test series, despite South Africa’s government relaxing some Covid-19-related restrictions and the improving situation in the country.

CSA claim they were not consulted by their Australian counterparts before the tour was cancelled, despite agreeing to every safety demands the would-be tourists made.

CSA also believe the CA decision devalues the ICCs World Test Championship, with New Zealand confirmed as one of the finalists following the cancellation.

“There’s got to be some understanding of how we manage the impact to less-wealthy nations,” Stavros Nicolaou, the chairman of CSA’s interim board told ESPNcricinfo.

“Unilateral decisions of this nature are punitive to less-wealthy cricket-playing nations and there has to be some discussion around redress.”

South Africa showed mental fragility

Meanwhile, Proteas coach Mark Boucher blamed mental fragility and failure to impress at key moments his side’s 2-0 loss to Pakistan on Monday.

Despite facing a daunting task of chasing down 370 in Rawalpindi to level the series, the visitors found themselves in a promising position at 241/3 shortly after lunch on the final day.

However, a flurry of wickets, a disturbing trend for Proteas fans, saw them only contribute 33 more runs to eventually lose by 95 runs.

“The way we played in big moments really cost us. Our match awareness of when to tighten the screws was lacking. That is the reason why we lost the game,” Boucher admitted to the media when asked.

“We didn’t bat well, didn’t field well but our bowling stood out. We created opportunities (in the field), we just didn’t take them. That cost us, in this game alone, about 150 runs.”

“I think it’s more mental. There’s lots of scars from past tours to the subcontinent. It’s stupid ways to get out in really important moments of the game.”

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