CSA complaints to ICC against Cricket Australia for postponing Test series

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has lodged a formal complaint with the ICC over Cricket Australia's (CA) decision to indefinitely postpone next month's three-match Test series.

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In a letter sent by acting CEO Pholetsi Moseki, seen by ESPNcricinfo, CSA is invoking both the World Test Championship (WTC) and the FTP agreement terms in search of points on the WTC table, as well as financial compensation from CA. It has asked the ICC to look into whether CA's cancellation amounts to acceptable or unacceptable non-compliance as per the WTC terms, bearing in mind that the series cannot be rescheduled before the end of the WTC window, which is April 30, 2021. It also wants the ICC to obtain a report on the health situation in South Africa to determine if Australia breached the terms by not travelling, ESPNcricinfo reported.

As per the ICC's FTP agreement, member countries are obliged to fulfil their fixtures unless there are circumstances which prevent them from doing so, including government instruction.

The Australian board had said that travelling from Australia to South Africa at this current time would have had an unacceptable level of health and safety risk to the visiting players.

Earlier, South Africa head coach Mark Boucher had said that it was disappointing to see Australia postpone the three-match Test series as all demands of Cricket Australia (CA) were being adhered to.

Australia's three-match Test tour of South Africa was postponed due to an "unacceptable" coronavirus risk.

"CSA have expressed their disappointment and it's no different for the players. I know there was a lot of planning going into the Australian tour back home. We haven't really been a part of that, but it seems a lot of goalposts were being moved for that particular tour, for Australia. For example, the one positive that came out of the bubble against Sri Lanka was the hotel that we stayed at (Irene County Club). We thought it was a great hotel for us as South Africans. It suits our needs and the cultural way that we are, being outdoors," ESPNCricinfo had quoted Boucher as saying.

"And we even surrendered that to Australia. There's probably a feeling that we were laying down the red carpet for Australia, which is frustrating at times. After all of that, it's very disappointing and disruptive to our plans going forward," he had added.