Proteas hint at Boxing Day return

The prospect of South Africa agreeing to return to play a Test match on Australian cricket’s biggest day appears a step closer as details of the game’s international playing schedule for the next decade take further shape.

Among the notable elements of draft details of the Future Tours Program (FTP) that is due to be finalised at the International Cricket Council’s next board meeting in October is an indication that the Proteas might tour Australia in November and December 2020.

Given that the draft document proposes that future series between the two top-ranked Test nations and strong rivals be extended from the current format of three Tests to four, the chances that the Proteas’ tour in six years’ time will include a Boxing Day appearance at the MCG appear heightened.

South Africa last appeared on Australian cricket’s marquee day in 2008, when Ricky Ponting came within a single of scoring a century in both innings and JP Duminy led the tourists to their first Test win in more than 50 years at the ground by batting almost eight hours to score an epic 166.

However, former Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola then decided the Proteas would be better served by playing at home during the lucrative Christmas-New Year period and a stand-off over appearances in Test matches at that time of year ensued.

When South Africa last toured Australia in 2012, the three Tests were played in November and staged in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

The draft FTP, while far from a final and formal document, indicates that while South Africa’s next Test tour to Australia in 2016 is also likely to be in October and November, the subsequent tour four years later could be pencilled in for November-December which means Boxing Day remains a possibility.

In recent years, South Africa’s Boxing Day Tests in Durban have been affected by wet weather and failed to draw strong crowds.

It was replaced by a Twenty20 international against New Zealand in 2012.

And during Australia’s recent tour of South Africa – when the prospect of the Proteas returning to Australia over the Christmas-New Year period in the future was initially floated – it was announced the 2014 Boxing Day Test would be shifted to Port Elizabeth’s St George’s Park which holds a maximum crowd of less than 20,000.

Due to the draft status of any FTP blueprint at this stage and the fact it could undergo minor or major change prior to October, Cricket Australia declined to comment on the details made public today.

At the conclusion of its recent annual meeting in Melbourne, the ICC issued a media release that stated: “The ICC Board noted the significant progress made on the Future Tours Programme (FTP) that has been extended through to 2023 and expressed satisfaction that there was now more certainty around long-term scheduling with a reasonable balance between home and away matches for all 10 teams as well as between the three formats.

“The ICC Board agreed with the ICC Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) recommendation that the Members must sign all bilateral agreements through to 2023 before the next ICC meeting, which takes place in October.”

But the draft made public today also contained a number of other notable details for the coming decade, including the fact that Australia – which along with New Zealand will host the quadrennial ICC World Cup next February and March – will stage the biennial World T20 tournament in 2020-21.

Other elements relevant to Australian cricket contained in the draft included:

• Australia to host a tour by one of cricket’s other major drawcards – England, India or South Africa – every home summer for the duration of the Program

• Proposal for at least one Test or ODI series every year – home or away - against South Africa (though until 2021-22) and India (up until the 2023 World Cup)

• With just four Tests scheduled for 2014-15 home summer (due to World Cup schedule), the following year will revert to six (featuring New Zealand and the West Indies including the possibility of the world’s first day-night Test) and as many as seven the following summer with South Africa (four) and Pakistan (three) scheduled to tour

• A total of 14 Tests and 25 limited-overs internationals against Pakistan over the next decade, with five of those seven series to ‘hosted’ by Pakistan (though it would appear most likely to be on neutral soil of UAE)

• A scheduled return to Zimbabwe in June/July 2018 for Tests and ODIs – Australia’s first Test appearance in the African nation since Steve Waugh led his team in a one-off match in Harare in 1999

• The first Test series between Australia and Bangladesh since 2006 in Bangladesh next year, followed by a Test series – possibly in northern Australia – between the nations in August 2017

As per the existing ICC Future Tours Program, which extends until April 2020 and will be formally amended following the October meeting, Australia and England will square off in five-Test Ashes series in 2015 and 2019 (in the UK) and 2017-18 (Australia).