Rahul Dravid insisted that India A toured South Africa despite Australia A’s cancellation

Since Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) have not yet come to a resolution on their pay dispute, Australia A’s tour of South Africa has been cancelled. It is the first time in the history of Australian cricket that the players have boycotted a tour. This is a big loss for the cricketers eyeing an international graduation, but unless the pay dispute is settled, Australian cricketers in all likeliness will keep boycotting tours.

Australia A, South Africa A and India A were to play a tri-series of 7 one-dayers from July 26 to August 8. Given that now only two countries will play the bilateral series, it was learned that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) wanted to postpone the tour until the pay dispute was resolved so that the Australian players too could take part.

However, India’s scheduled will remain unchanged and they will travel to South Africa irrespective of Australia’s tour being cancelled. Reports suggest that it was the coach of the India A team Rahul Dravid who insisted that the series should be played as per schedule.

“Given the situation in Australia, we were considering postponing the SA tour, but Dravid insisted that we shouldn’t let our team suffer for what happened there. Cricket South Africa (CSA) is keen to host us too, so the tour will go ahead,“ a BCCI official told TOI.

CSA left with two options 

Meanwhile, Cricket South Africa (CSA) is planning to invite another A team to replace Australia A or turn the tri-series to a bilateral one between the two countries, with five ODIs instead of seven. The Australian national team is also scheduled to tour India in October, and if the pay dispute is not settled in the next three months, we could see even that tour being scrapped.