As many as nine South African players, including Aiden Markram, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and David Miller will join their respective IPL teams in India on April 3, four days after the tournament begins on March 31.
According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has informed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that it wants all of its top players available for the two-match home ODI series against the Netherlands, starting in late March.
CSA made this decision because South Africa needs to beat the Netherlands in the series to qualify directly for the 2023 World Cup, which will be held later this year in India. The Netherlands recently announced a strong squad for the series in Zimbabwe, followed by the ODIs in South Africa. Both series are part of the ODI Super League, with the South Africa games scheduled on March 31 and April 2 in Benoni and Johannesburg, respectively.
The development will affect six IPL franchises, including the Kavya Maran-owned Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), who recently appointed Markram as their new captain. SRH (Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Marco Jansen), Delhi Capitals (Nortje, Lungi Ngidi), Mumbai Indians (Tristan Stubbs), defending champions Gujarat Titans (Miller), Lucknow Super Giants (Quinton de Kock), Punjab Kings (Rabada) have South African players in the side.
Last December, a day before the IPL 2023 Auction, the BCCI informed the franchises about the availability of overseas players. The BCCI had stated that contracted South African players would be available from March 29, two days prior to the IPL opener. However, according to CSA’s CEO, Pholetsi Moseki, the BCCI has been given an explanation as to why it is mandatory for South African contracted players to feature in the Netherlands series.
“The BCCI understands the importance of the Netherlands series to us automatically qualifying for the 2023 World Cup,” Moseki said in his official statement.
