CSA president accepts BCCI's invitation; to meet top brass in India on Friday

Chris Nenzani is set to travel to India to meet Srinivasan and Patel

Chris Nenzani, the president of Cricket South Africa (CSA), is all set to meet the BCCI top brass in Mumbai on Friday, as per the latest reports.

BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel had formally invited the CSA president to India for talks over the proposed India-South Africa series after the decision on the marquee series was stalled for months.

ESPNCricinfo reports that Nenzani has agreed to the meeting and also finalised the dates for the discussion with Patel and recently re-elected BCCI president, N Srinivasan, who was cleared by the Supreme Court of India to take control over the cricket body.

Patel had earlier invited Nenzani, specifically keeping CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat out of the discussions. Lorgat’s appointment has been the prime bone of contention between BCCI and CSA with the Indian officials not having a favourable view of the South African of Indian origin.

Patel was present at the Indian cricket team’s unveiling of its new jersey yesterday ahead of the Australian limited 0vers series in Rajkot, Gujarat and is expected to fly to Mumbai today.

Nenzani will have to skip CSA’s Annual General Meeting on Saturday to attend the meeting in India, though he’s not likely to face any dissent since this is an issue which CSA wants to resolve as soon as possible, considering the monetary loss it stands to incur if the Indian tour in cancelled.

India’s main complaint, apart from Lorgat’s appointment earlier, was CSA announcing the full itinerary of the tour on its own without getting any consent from BCCI.

In the past month, BCCI have squeezed in a 2-match Test series with West Indies in November and also brought forward the New Zeland tour next month, reducing the window available for a 2-T20I, 7-ODI and 3-Test long series, as planned earlier.

In the shortened window now, only the bare minimum of 2-Test 3-ODI series can take place and in the current circumstances, CSA would like to agree to that considering the financial loss at stake otherwise.