After asking the International Cricket Council to review Aussie monopoly over Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests, Cricket South Africa has now upped the ante by claiming that Australia has put other countries to financial hardships by taking advantage of a heavily biased Future Tours Programme (FTP).
‘’I am taking nothing away from Australia being as good as they are but I think the schedule has made Australia into a superpower,’’ CSA Chief Executive Officer Gerald Majola told The Australian.
‘’They play more home games and most of those home games are during their peak season, therefore financially they will always be fine because they get bigger crowds than anyone else,’’ he added.
Majola did not even spare India and England for getting more games though his criticisms were mainly against Australia.
‘’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. 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 games in the first place, how are you going to develop your players to compete with the best?’’
Majola also confirmed that next summer’s Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests would be the last played by South Africa in Australia on these dates.
FTP, which was introduced last year and expires after the 2011-12 summer, envisages each Test nation to play every other country at home and away in at least two Tests and three one-day matches in that time.
‘’All of the countries were asked to submit their most favourable times and seven countries all had the same peak period of Boxing Day and New Year’s,’’ Majola said. ‘’Yet, when the FTP was drawn up only Australia got it every year in Australia.”