BCCI to host South Africa's women team for a limited-overs series in March

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Cricket South Africa (CSA) have decided to host a limited-overs series comprising five One Day Internationals and three T20 Internationals between the women’s cricket team of both the nations. The series is expected to commence from March 10 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

It is learned that South Africa’s women cricket team have undergone initial rounds of Covid-19 tests in South Africa and are expected to arrive in Mumbai on February 25 and serve a six-day mandatory quarantine period before flying to Bengaluru. The Indian players are also expected to report in Bengaluru by the start of next week.

“You heard it right. Bengaluru will host the India-South Africa matches. The matches will be played in M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The team selection is expected to happen in the next week,” a top BCCI official confirmed exclusively to Women’s CricZone website on Wednesday (February 17)

“I can tell you now that the Proteas conducted their COVID19 tests today,” a Cricket South Africa official told the same website on Wednesday.

Limited-overs series between South Africa and India marks the comeback of cricket in India

The limited-overs series between India and South Africa marks the international comeback for Women in Blue as they had last played an international fixture during the T20 World Cup final in Australia in 2020. They were expected to travel to England in the second half of 2020 but had to cancel the tour owing to the travel restrictions due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The series was scheduled to take place at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala but the Kerala association denied hosting the series as they have allocated the ground for an army recruitment rally at the same time as the scheduled series.

“KCA had the full support of the Kerala government and the Sports Minister, but schedule clashes became the hurdle in hosting the matches. If the state government doesn’t intervene, the Greenfield Stadium will soon become unusable,” KCA president Sajan Varghese and secretary Sreejith Nair jointly said in the statement.