Proteas’ Caribbean Tests to be played in ‘luckless’ St Lucia

One never needs to blackmail players to go and tour the beautiful Caribbean, but the Proteas’ heads may have just dropped a bit when the schedule for their series in the West Indies starting next month was released on Friday and it revealed that both Test matches will be played on the island of St Lucia.

The tour starts with the two Tests from June 10-14 and June 18-22, and they will both be hosted by the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground at Gros Islet on St Lucia, a venue where South Africa have never managed to win a cricket match.

It was the venue of their infamous 2007 World Cup semi-final when “Brave Cricket” saw them crash to 27 for five against Australia, who cruised to victory by seven wickets with 111 deliveries to spare.

Their other two games at the then Beausejour Stadium in the hilly north-east of the beautiful tropical island were in the 2010 T20 World Cup when the Proteas lost to both India and Pakistan.

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The Proteas have never played a Test there but the last five-day game at Gros Islet saw a good cricket pitch on which England beat the West Indies by 232 runs, both fast bowlers and spinners doing well as Mark Wood was man of the match with figures of six for 93 and Moeen Ali took seven for 135. The tourists scored 361 for five declared in their second innings.

Contrary to expectations emanating from the Caribbean that Trinidad would be South Africa’s main base for the tour, Grenada will then host the five T20 Internationals between June 26 and July 3 at the National Cricket Stadium at St George’s.

The Proteas’ record there is better, winning all three of their ODIs against the West Indies, but being beaten by New Zealand during the 2007 World Cup on a pitch that made batting very difficult with plenty of assistance for the bowlers.

CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith said the change from the big island of Trinidad, that is closer to the South American mainland, to St Lucia and Grenada was for safety reasons in these times of Covid.

“We have been working with the West Indies cricket board weekly and they decided to go to islands that are safer because of Covid; St Lucia and Grenada have had less cases than other venues,” Smith told The Citizen.

South Africa have not played a Test in the West Indies since June 2010, when Smith himself captained them to a 2-0 series win.