BCCI has made no commitment to tour South Africa, reveals Arun Dhumal

Earlier, on Thursday, CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith and interim chief executive Jacques Faul had said that India has agreed to tour South Africa for three T20 Internationals in August, indicating the resumption of cricket once the COVID-19 pandemic spread is under control. However, BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal, on Friday, denied those statements saying that the BCCI has not made "any commitment" to tour South Africa in August and there have only been discussions about such a possibility, 

"When South Africa's tour of India got cancelled due to coronavirus, we had discussions that if there is a possibility, we will make an effort to tour South Africa. But at no point have we made any commitment to Cricket South Africa about touring in August," Dhumal told PTI in an exclusive interaction.

The senior BCCI official further said that unless the government clears international travel, BCCI won't be in a position to make any such commitments.

"Right now, we can't even commit that we can tour Sri Lanka in July followed by (short T20 series) in Zimbabwe. Both these tours are part of the FTP programme and we are still not sure what the situation will be in two months, so how can we commit to a South Africa tour?" Dhumal asked.

Further on, when asked about Graeme Smith's backing of Sourav Ganguly's candidature for the ICC chairmanship, Dhumal said it would be good for global cricket if an Indian is the chief of the governing council.

"There has been no formal discussion in BCCI about ICC chairmanship. Graeme Smith obviously spoke in his personal capacity which is not CSA's stand. As far as the BCCI is concerned we would certainly like an Indian to lead the global body and our president has credentials obviously. But again we haven't yet discussed it," he added.