Domestic boost as Test players eye Shield, Marsh Cup

With the Test tour of South Africa shelved, Australia’s elite cricketers are expected to feature in the domestic tournaments

After the BBL|10 all Australian test players are looking for the home domestic series Shield Marsh 2021 soon.

A strengthened second half of the Marsh Sheffield Shield, with the Marsh One-Day Cup yet to begin, is the silver-lining for Australian cricket after the Test tour of South Africa was postponed.

Cricket Board Australia has already committed to separate squads for the South Africa Test and New Zealand T20 tours, and that stance was reaffirmed today, with no changes to squad or coaching personnel given pre-departure requirements had already begun for a tour that leaves on Sunday.

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Discussions between CA’s high-performance unit and its state counterparts were happening today to begin mapping out individual plans for Test players to return to their state systems.

Australia’s Test players will return to their state sides for the resumption of the domestic cricket season after the KFC BBL with Cricket Australia confirming no changes would be made to the T20 squad to tour New Zealand.

A strengthened second half of the Marsh Sheffield Shield, with the Marsh One-Day Cup yet to begin, is the silver-lining for Australian cricket after the Test tour of South Africa was postponed.

CA had already committed to separate squads for the South Africa Test and New Zealand T20 tours, and that stance was reaffirmed today, with no changes to squad or coaching personnel given pre-departure requirements had already begun for a tour that leaves on Sunday.

Discussions between CA’s high-performance unit and its state counterparts were happening today to begin mapping out individual plans for Test players to return to their state systems. QUICK SINGLE confirms latest ever finish to domestic summer

Concerns about the more virulent strain of COVID-19 in South Africa and logistical challenges around extracting players if the coronavirus got inside their bio-secure hub were the primary reasons CA pulled out the tour, interim chief Nick Hockley confirmed today.

CA officially postponed the three-Test tour of South Africa late on Tuesday night, hindering the national team’s chances of making the World Test Championship final and sparking an angry reaction from officials across the Indian ocean.

Hockley said CA had made a formal offer to host South Africa which is understood to have been made at an earlier stage in negotiations over arrangements for the tour.

“We did offer to host the series here but Cricket South Africa made that very clear that they have got lots of other commitments and with quarantine periods and the like, that just wasn’t feasible,” Hockley told reporters on Wednesday.

Cricket South Africa’s director of cricket Graeme Smith, the former Proteas captain, said Australia’s concerns were unfounded.

“We are extremely disappointed by the decision of CA,” Smith said in a statement.

“CSA has been working tirelessly in recent weeks to ensure that we meet every single expectation of CA. So to be informed about the CA decision at the eleventh hour is frustrating.”

CSA’s acting chief executive officer Pholetsi Moseki said the organisation had already “incurred significant costs related to the planning stages and the cancellation of the tour represents a serious financial loss.”

“In this challenging period for cricket and its member countries, we believe the stance taken by CA is regrettable and will have a serious impact on the sustainability of the less wealthy cricket playing nations,” he said.