Cricket West Indies hoping to host South Africa in September

Cricket West Indies is planning to host South Africa for a five-match T20I series or for two Tests in September. They are currently waiting for the IPL organizers to announce the rescheduled dates of the edition which is anticipated to commence on September 19, as per BCCI's Friday announcement.

“We very much hope that South Africa will be able to come here in September for either a T20-only tour or a Test-only tour at the very least. It will be dependent on the IPL. South Africa have a number of their Test players who have IPL contracts, whereas in this current Test team we don’t have any IPL players,” Cricket West Indies Chief Executive, Johnny Grave said.

Test series during IPL won't be possible: Cricket West Indies

Grave revealed that Cricket South Africa have made it clear to CWI that a Test series during the IPL will not be possible since they have a commitment with their players and have to allow them to feature in the IPL:

“We won’t be able to play Test cricket against South Africa during the IPL – Cricket South Africa have made that very clear to us. They’ve got a commitment to their players to allow them to go and play in the IPL.”

West Indies players are scheduled to play in the Caribbean Premier League after returning home from the tour of England. CPL is expected to be held between August 18 and September 10. This leaves the CWI with a mere 9 days to stage the South Africa series. Grave admitted that a split tour is on the cards, too:

“CPL finishes September 10. We hope very much that South Africa will follow immediately after that. Whether we can get the full tour in or we’re going to have to look at a split tour between the Tests and the T20s, we don’t know."

The Proteas were scheduled to tour the Caribbean for two Tests and five T20Is from July 23 to August 16 but the tour was deferred due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.