‘But after lengthy discussions, they were unable to persuade the South Africans, who fly out of the UK on Tuesday, to delay their departure by 24 hours even though they have a 10-day gap between arriving home and departing for their next tour of India on 24 September.
i understands it was the reluctance of South Africa to risk losing – and damaging their hopes of qualifying for next year’s World Test Championship Final – rather than logistical issues that was the main reason behind their decision not to agree to extend the match.‘
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This reminds me of the Erasmus chicken run when we chose to not compete even though fans were thirsting for sport after the initial Covid isolation.
Here we are again, deciding not to compete at an historic moment. A day was lost with Queen Elizabeth’s passing. In view of that event we should absolutely have agreed to extend by a day….to be part of something historic.
Instead the Proteas choose to avoid a possible loss……embarrassingly small. .