Just after the completion of the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), scheduled to be held from March 26, the Indian team will host South Africa for a five-match T20 series in June.
The serie will run for over a period of 10 days before the Men In Blue departs to England for the unfinished final Test and six white-ball games.
“This is part of the FTP and there were always to be played after the IPL,” a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official was quoted was saying by Cricbuzz.
As per reports, the T20I series will be held between June 9 and 19 and the venues for it will be Cuttack, Vizag, Delhi, Rajkot and Chennai.
Notably, Bengaluru and Nagpur were all set to host the games during the South Africa series however, Cuttack and Vizag have been allotted the matches as the former two centres had missed out on the Twenty20 fixtures during recent West Indies series.
Earlier, the Indian board had hosted the six matches against West Indies only in two centres – Ahmedabad and Kolkata – due to logistical challenges and the then prevalent Covid scenario in the country.
On the other hand, the BCCI’s Apex Council has also approved the conduct of the CK Nayudu Trophy, Senior Women’s T20 League and Cooch Behar Trophy games.
Reports suggested that the schedule for two of the aforementioned tournaments have been finalized. Notably, these tournaments were forced to be postponed from January-February because of the spread and threat of the the Omicron wave.
The reports also said that the CK Nayudu Trophy (for Under 25 men), with eight Elite Groups of four teams each and one Plate Group of five teams, will be staged between March 15 to May 1 while the Senior Women’s T20 league, with five Elite Groups of six teams each and one Plate Group of seven teams, will be held between April 15 and May 12.
However, schedule for the Under 19 Cooch Behar Trophy’s knockout games has not been decided although the Apex Council has agreed to complete the tournament.