With Australia's blunt refusal to visit South Africa to play Tests on the
traditional dates of December 26 and January 2, Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald
Majola has said the national team's 2008-09 tour of Down Under would be their
last away series in the peak holiday time.
Australia and South Africa are on tenterhooks over encashing on the Boxing
Day and New Year Tests in their own country's and the later had also demanded
a review of schedule from the International Cricket Council.
"The contract with Australia, which said we would tour
there over Christmas and New Year, expires at the end of our next tour. We asked
Australia to come here over that period, so we could benefit financially from
the holiday season, but Australia refused point blank," said Majola.
The CSA Chief Executive Officer said the two cricket boards
agreed on not touring each other's countries in their peak holiday times at
home and also would not schedule back-to-back series against each other.
"So we have agreed we will tour each other's country at
off-peak times, and there will be no more back-to-back tours between the two
countries. We have also asked that Australia should visit South Africa first,
before we tour there, next time," he was quoted as saying by 'The Sunday
Times'.
The Boxing Day Test has been played in Durban every year since
the 1995-96 season, when South Africa played England in Port Elizabeth.
But Majola said, in recent years Port Elizabeth had managed
to draw large crowds at inconvenient times and needed to be rewarded by being
chosen as the host for the December 26 Test against the West Indies, particularly
as crowds in Durban had been disappointing.
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