ANI, Melbourne, May 6): Cricket
South Africa is all set to announce the program forAustralia's October-November tour on Friday and for the first time there will be room for only two Tests, along with two Twenty20 matches and three one-day internationals.
Champions League Twenty20 tournament in India during September and early October is the main reason for relegating this Test rivalry to minor league status.
CA refused to comment on the detail of the tour until it was released by South Africa but chief executive James Sutherland has claimed that Test cricket remained Australia's priority, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Negotiations are taking place to add a fourth Test to Australia's 2014 tour. "It is our premium format of the game and we're committed to it," Sutherland said.
CA showed a strange way of enforcing that commitment last year when it demanded thatMike Hussey and Doug Bollinger stay with their IPL team Chennai in South Africa instead of joining the Australia team on tour in India for a two-Test series.
With India owning 50 per cent of the tournament, Australia 33 per cent and South Africa 17 per cent, that is an enormous amount of money. Leading domestic Twenty20 teams from around the world compete, with Australia's top two Big Bash teams playing off.
