BCCI trying to tweak South Africa schedule after Ravi Shastri complaint

09/15/2017

The BCCI are trying to change the dates of India's tour of South Africa after head coach Ravi Shastri complained about the overload of fixtures in the coming months. Reports suggest that the Committee of Administrators agree with Shastri on the issue and have asked the BCCI to look into the matter.

India have been playing continuously for over a year now and Ravi Shastri is concerned about the cramped schedule that still lies ahead. Since New Zealand's tour of India began in September 2016, Indian players have played a combined 44 matches, excluding warmup games and the IPL. The three match Test series against New Zealand was followed by a five match ODI series. England were the next team to travel to India and they played a total of 11 matches (5 Tests, 3 ODIs, and 3 T20Is) in just under 3 months. After the one off Test against Bangladesh, the Australia tour saw India play another four Tests.

This was followed by the gruelling schedule of the IPL and the Champions Trophy where India made it all the way to the final. Four days after the final, India were back on the field - this time in the Caribbean - playing another six games (5 ODIs and 1 T20I). Eleven days after the series, India found themselves in Sri Lanka playing a warm up game and followed it up with another nine matches (3 Tests, 5ODIs, and 3 T20Is)

But that, apparently, is not enough to earn the players a break. India now start back-to-back limited-overs series against Australia (8 matches) and New Zealand (6 matches). Then comes the home series against Sri Lanka before they travel to South Africa for a full fledged three-month tour. Since the dates of the series cannot be altered, the BCCI is looking to add a few off days in between the different formats.

“There is hardly any scope to tweak the dates for the Tests and ODIs, but there could be a possibility to rework the T20 schedule. Basically, we are looking at providing enough gap between each format,” a BCCI source said, reported Hindustan Times.

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