Cricket South Africa (CSA) has decided that the South African cricket team will not take part in the 3-match ODI series in January next year as the dates of that series will clash with the dates of the new South African T20 league, the first edition of which is proposed to take place in January 2023.
This news is a bit surprising for most cricket viewers around the world because South Africa is currently placed at the 11th position in the ICC ODI Super League rankings and the ODI series against Australia was very important for them in terms of direct qualification to the World Cup 2023.
But, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has decided to not just withdraw from the series, they have not even insisted on the postponement of the series. They have agreed upon the fact that they would give Australia a walkover and all the points that were to be at stake in that series would be given to the Aussie team.
Position of South African cricket team in ODI Super League rankings will worsen even further now
That means the position of South African cricket team in the ICC ODI Super League standings will worsen even further and it looks increasingly possible now that they might have to play the qualifiers, as they wouldn’t be able to earn a direct qualification to the ODI World Cup 2023.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) had actually asked Cricket Australia (CA) to make an arrangement for the ODI series at earlier dates so that the dates couldn’t clash with their new proposed T20 league, but Cricket Australia already has a very busy schedule at home this summer with T20 World Cup also slated to take place there and it was not possible to find any other dates.
As the current rules of the ICC ODI Super League are, the teams which occupy the top 7 positions in the standings will qualify directly for the World Cup, alongside India which is the host country and will qualify automatically. The rest will have to play a qualifying tournament.
