“It would seem inappropriate to appoint a health and safety consultant outside of South Africa.” – CSA pushes for local Covid-19 experts in its battle with CA.
Telford Vice | Cape Town
THE gloves were never on in the squabble between CSA and CA over the latter’s decision to call off Australia’s Test series in South Africa next month because of Covid concerns, but knuckles are bare in the wake of CSA laying a formal complaint with the ICC. They may soon be bleeding, metaphorically speaking.
Cricbuzz broke the news of CSA’s move on Tuesday, and the details of their gripe are now to hand. They are contained in a letter to the ICC, which has been seen by Cricbuzz.
“Considering all the relevant circumstances, we do not believe that the cancellation of the tour on the part of CA amounted to ‘acceptable non-compliance’ under the World Test Championship [WTC] competition terms,” Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s acting chief executive, wrote to ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney. “Unfortunately, we have little choice but to formally progress the matter under the provisions of the WTC competition terms and the FTP [future tours programme] agreement.”
CSA says it has pulled all the stops, and more, to try and satisfy the Australians that they would be as safe as possible from the virus in South Africa. CA says that isn’t good enough. A salient fact is that 1,210 new cases were reported in South Africa on Tuesday — when only five people tested positive in Australia.
Safety fears sparked by the pandemic are accepted as reasons for boards to not fulfil WTC and FTP commitments. But that needs to be agreed between the parties or decided by the ICC. Clearly, the former is not an option in this case. So it’s over to you, Dubai.
“Hence, we now formally require ICC to proceed to obtain a security report … whereafter we will proceed to have the matter adjudicated upon by a disputes panel under the ICC disputes resolution committee terms of reference,” Moseki wrote.
The regulations say the knowledge of more than one independent authority may be required to guide the ICC towards a decision “ … if the issues raised require reports from consultants with expertise in different fields”. CSA is trying to stand firm on that point, as Moseki made plain in his letter: “We are acutely aware that matters pertaining to Covid-19 are likely to require specialist expertise and we would hope that ICC bears this in mind when making the relevant appointments. In this regard, it would seem inappropriate to appoint a health and safety consultant outside of South Africa given that such an expert consultant would be unlikely to properly and accurately comprehend the Covid-19 related risks within South Africa and how they may be adequately managed. Given the nature of the pandemic, it will inevitably require location-specific advice.”
The pandemic has morphed into a geopolitical issue because the developed world has become suspicious of other countries’ efforts to contain the spread of the disease, even though many developing nations have had more success at fighting the scourge than First World countries. But South Africa has had a high infection rate — which is receding — and a strain of the virus that was first detected there has proved resistant to some of the available vaccines.
So the ICC might need convincing that an expert based in South Africa would be considered sufficiently neutral. But it is equally true that only scientists in the country will have a comprehensive grip on the coronavirus realities in South Africa.
The requirement that whoever does the job has five days after they are appointed to submit their report to the ICC surely means experts in South Africa will be enlisted. But the ICC could allow the consultants more time to do their work.
Even though Moseki used the word “cancellation” in his letter, the series has officially been postponed. With CSA set to earn between USD2-million and USD2.7-million in broadcast rights from the rubber, it will be keen to see it rescheduled. Failing that, for CA to cough up at least some money as compensation for what CSA has spent on trying to convince Australia to tour.
First published by Cricbuzz.
Bulletproof Truth 