SA board chief slams Aussie calendar

Melbourne: The bickering over cricket scheduling escalated further on Thursday with the South African board accusing its Indian, Australian and English counterparts of monopolising the international calendar and leaving the rest with "scraps".

Directing his anger at Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa Chief Executive Gerald Majola has said that the Australian team, four-time World Champions, owed their dominance to the CA zealously protecting their home season.

As per the six-year Future Tours Programme (FTP) that runs till 2011-12, the Australian team does not tour other Test nations during their summer months of December-February. The bone of contention has been the traditional Boxing Day and new year Tests, played during December 26-30 and January 2-6 and referred to as "icon Tests", which Majola said was shared by seven Test playing nations and that CA has refused to compromise.

"All of the countries were asked (before the FTP was re-drafted last year) to submit our most favourable times and seven countries all had the same peak period of Boxing Day and New Year's," Majola was quoted as saying by 'The Australian'. "Yet, when the FTP was drawn up, only Australia got it every year in Australia. No other country had that privilege. For me, that was seriously unacceptable."

Even the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which has been an ally of CSA in recent years, did not escape Majola's fury. "There are only three countries which have far more games than anyone else - England, India and Australia. Everybody else just gets the scraps of what is left over from that," he said.

"Our argument is that if the ICC wants the game to be globalised, there should be enough cricket to create equality. "Because if you don't have the game in the first place, how are you going to develop your players to compete with the best," Majola asked. Currently, South Africa has an agreement with Australia according to which they visit Down Under every four years and receive $3,00,000 as compensation for the "icon" Tests.

Majola said the amount was pittance and confirmed earlier reports that the 2008-09 season would be the last time South Africa would be touring Australia during the southern summer.

Majola also questioned the amount of cricket played by Australia. "I am taking nothing away from Australia being as good as they are but I think the schedule has made Australia into a superpower," he said. "They play more home games and most of those home games are during their peak period. Therefore, financially they will always be fine because they get bigger crowds than anyone else."

However CA insists, even with South Africa's stance, those "icon" Tests are locked in for at least the next five years and dismisses Majola's criticisms as "nonsense".

"To suggest that Australia is a superpower because of programming is a nonsense," CA chief executive James Sutherland said. "We have been making a huge investment in the grassroots up for decades. To suggest that Cricket Australia gets the program it wants is also a nonsense," he said.

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