Hours after saying that South African players will return from the IPL for the World Test Championship final on May 26, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has performed a U-turn and announced that the squad members for the summit clash against Australia would now start their training on June 3.
,with the final of the tournament set for June 3. This left South African and Australian players in a tough spot as the WTC final is all set to begin at Lord’s on June 11. CSA reiterated their commitment to the WTC final preparations at first, saying that they had told BCCI that the players would return on May 26.
“It is an individual decision, obviously, to return or to play or continue,” CSA’s director of national teams and high performance Enoch Nkwe said during press conference.
“One thing we’ve made clear, and we are finalising this with the IPL and the BCCI, is sticking to our original plan when it comes to the WTC preparations.”
“May 26 is the latest for the Test guys to come back. The original plans don’t change because the No. 1 priority is the WTC final. We’ve been engaging with them over the last day or two to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
However, a report by the West Australian Today has said that Nkwe went back on his statement and said that the date for return has been changed.
‘Matter is being discussed higher up than me’
Nkwe said discussion is happening at the executive and board levels between CSA, the BCCI and IPL franchises.
“Correction – the squad will resume training for the game on June 3rd,” he said. “The matter is being discussed higher up than me. At ground level, we are focusing on preps for the WTC final.”
Eight South African players — Kagiso Rabada (Gujarat Titans), Lungi Ngidi (Royal Challengers Bengaluru), Tristan Stubbs (Delhi Capitals), Aiden Markram (Lucknow Super Giants), Ryan Rickelton (Mumbai Indians), Corbin Bosch (MI), Marco Jansen (Punjab Kings) and Wiaan Mulder (Sunrisers Hyderabad) — have been named in the Proteas squad for the WTC Final, scheduled to start from June 11 in London.
The playoffs of the revised IPL 2025 schedule will run from May 29 to June 3, which will be the date of the final.
This will mean that South Africa’s preparation game against Zimbabwe will have to be pushed back.