South Africa to host Australia, England in 2023: Graeme Smith

Cricket South Africa (CSA) Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith, stated that South Africa is set to host England and Australia in 2023 for bilateral affairs. The series against the Aussies was set to take place in February 2020 but had to be called off due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rescheduled series is now expected to take place in August 2023.

The matches against England were postponed in December 2020 due to the pandemic itself. The Three Lions will now lock horns with the Proteas for a three-match ODI series in the winter of 2022-23. Smith made the revelations on the bilateral games during the Cape Town Test match that the home team won by seven wickets.

We need to make sure South Africa is at the forefront, says Graeme Smith

“England, I think, is around Feb-March next year and then Australia is in August 2023 to replace the [Test series postponed in 2021]. That will be announced sometime soon,” Smith was quoted as saying to SuperSport.

“With series lost in Covid and the challenge is you have eight white-ball events in eight years now, you have got IPL extending – trying to fit your calendar cycle in is a great challenge for everybody. So you need to review, you need to stay with the times. And you need to make sure we keep putting South African cricket on the map,” he stated.

“Our team – both men and women – needs to be performing well and be recognised and people want to play us. But we need to make sure when things are happening in world cricket South Africa is at the forefront,” Smith added.

South Africa endured massive losses when the series against Australia and England had to be postponed. Recently, their T20I series against India had to be postponed as well due to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

However, the Test series took place as per the schedule and the ODIs are set to start in a couple of days. South Africa also hosted India A for three red-ball unofficial Tests at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein. During this while, South Africa’s ODIs against the Netherlands had to be cancelled.