CAPETOWN: Cricket South Africa (CSA) has decided to not allow their centrally contracted players in Pakistan Super League (PSL) season 7 which is slated to commence from January 27.
CSA’s Director Cricket Graeme Smith confirmed that reports related to their players’ non-availability for PSL are true that the board had opted to prioritise domestic competitions.
“It is true that contracted members of the proteas team had their NOCs for the PSL 7 refused due to the Proteas international schedule and domestic competitions which must always be prioritised,” Smith was quoted saying to a sports website.
“With an away tour to New Zealand and a home tour against Bangladesh, our contracted players have to be available for their national team duties first and foremost. The same applies with regard to our domestic franchise tournaments which will be starting up soon,
“If and when opportunities in other international T20 tournaments arise and the timings and fixtures do not clash with our own, CSA will happily approve NOCs, as we have always done in the past,” he added.
As a result of this decision, no South African player was picked up by franchises in replacement, and additional players draft that took place on Friday.
The replacement draft, due to be held before the start of the PSL, had been relying on the availability of South African cricketers, an option no longer available to the league. The PSL francises were keen on using South African cricketers to bolster their squads but those hopes have now been dashed.
The decision to bar centrally contracted South African cricketers doesn’t directly affect any players picked up in last month’s PSL draft. Only three South African players including Marchant de Lange, Imran Tahir and Rilee Rossouw are part of PSL 7 squads and are not centrally contracted by CSA.
