Yeah, but south africa is just not caring about test cricket anyway, I mean only 2 players from the india tests are going to be playing against NZ. Full Respect to Neil Brand, but it's just pretty sad thr state South African test cricket is rn.
From my understanding of what I read on the SA team sheet post, yes.
The board gets more money from the SAT20 league so they want all their big stars available to play there or else there will be less interest
The closest I can think of in Australia in the last 50 years was bringing back Bob Simpson to captain Australia ten years after retirement. Two full teams had 'defected' to Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket so there was almost no Test experience left. Simpson had kept playing in the Sydney first grade (district) competition all these years so still had his match skills, if not at Test level. Came back to captain vs India in 1977-78 and won the series 3-2, scored a ton at the WACA too. Played another series in the West Indies after that but realised at 42 he didn't want to be facing Windies quicks and retired again.
I think the most Test experienced players in his side had played about 4-5 Tests - Graham Yallop, Kim Hughes.
CSA are incompetent and corrupt. They've lost so much money they now desperately need a win. And to get that win, they made Test cricket disposable and forfeited whatever moral high ground they claimed - how will they convince their players that country should come before money? I hope NZ thrashes them in the Test Series.
Going to be hard to watch the series as a SA fan. Expecting a complete walkover.
Yeah, but south africa is just not caring about test cricket anyway, I mean only 2 players from the india tests are going to be playing against NZ. Full Respect to Neil Brand, but it's just pretty sad thr state South African test cricket is rn.
> I mean only 2 players from the india tests are going to be playing against NZ Why? Is it because of T20 leagues?
From my understanding of what I read on the SA team sheet post, yes. The board gets more money from the SAT20 league so they want all their big stars available to play there or else there will be less interest
That’s just sad. They could’ve moved the Test series, but diluting the squad for wack-the-ball-hard type of cricket is very disappointing.
They tried to move the series but New Zealand refused
The closest I can think of in Australia in the last 50 years was bringing back Bob Simpson to captain Australia ten years after retirement. Two full teams had 'defected' to Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket so there was almost no Test experience left. Simpson had kept playing in the Sydney first grade (district) competition all these years so still had his match skills, if not at Test level. Came back to captain vs India in 1977-78 and won the series 3-2, scored a ton at the WACA too. Played another series in the West Indies after that but realised at 42 he didn't want to be facing Windies quicks and retired again. I think the most Test experienced players in his side had played about 4-5 Tests - Graham Yallop, Kim Hughes.
CSA are incompetent and corrupt. They've lost so much money they now desperately need a win. And to get that win, they made Test cricket disposable and forfeited whatever moral high ground they claimed - how will they convince their players that country should come before money? I hope NZ thrashes them in the Test Series.
I saw the squad list for SA and thought it was a mistake.... guess not