Many members of the cricket universe would know by now that Cricket South Africa (CSA) have left the decision to participate in the IPL to their players. The South African players are in a dilemma because the rainbow nation will play an ICC World Test Championship series and an ICC Cricket World Cup Super League series against the Bangladesh cricket team during the first few days of IPL 2022.
Last year, when the Pakistan cricket team visited South Africa, the IPL-bound South African players left midway and missed the first few matches but were available for most part of the competition. This year, the case is a little different because the IPL is starting early.
The IPL 2022 schedule came out yesterday, and the tournament will begin on March 26 in Mumbai with a match between the Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders. The tournament will culminate on May 29. While South Africa will not play any international matches in May, they are scheduled to host Bangladesh during March end and start of April.
To be precise, the tour will start with an ICC Cricket World Cup Super League series on March 18. The 3-match series will end on March 23, so if the South African players reach India as soon as possible, they will miss just one or two games because of the three-day quarantine.
South African players who play in Test series will miss more matches in IPL 2022
The players who also prefer Test cricket will be in the rainbow nation till April 12, so they will be unavailable for IPL 2022 at least till April 15. Commenting on the dilemma, former Indian opener Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel:
“South Africa have said that they will tell the players that they have the option, let’s test your loyalty to the nation. Very difficult question to address because there is a three-day quarantine before IPL.”
