Klaasen hits out at ‘ridiculous’ schedules as Proteas target series draw

Middle-order batter Heinrich Klaasen has lashed out at cricket administrators for organising shortened international tours for the South African team.

With India having taken a 2-1 lead in their ongoing T20 International series, after picking up an 11-run victory over the Proteas in Centurion on Wednesday, the hosts cannot secure a series win.

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With just one more match to play at the Wanderers on Friday (starting at 5pm), the best the SA team can do is draw level at 2-2, and Klaasen said the players would have preferred a full five-match series.

“We don’t play five-match series anymore. Our Test team plays two-match series, which is ridiculous in my eyes,” Klaasen said.

“How nice would it be if we won on Friday and on Sunday there was another game, going into it at 2-2.

“It’s disappointing and it doesn’t sit well with the players because we want to play more cricket against these guys and the other countries as well, but we always seem to play just a few games and it’s annoying.”

Second-string opposition

Klaasen said he was baffled by the structure of the saturated international calendar, which would see India starting a Test series against Australia next Friday, just one week after concluding their T20 series against South Africa.

This clash had resulted in the tourists sending a second-string squad to face the Proteas, and while India had done well to win two of the three games thus far, Klaasen said they would have preferred playing a full strength side.

ALSO READ: Saturated cricket calendar is watering down international games

He admitted there was nothing they could do about it now, however, and they just needed to put their heads down and ensure they salvaged a draw from the four-match T20 campaign.

“It is disappointing but it is what it is and we have to make sure we don’t lose the series,” he said.

“There’s no time to hover on this. We will make small tweaks in our planning ahead of the fourth game, but it’s part of professional cricket these days.”