Cricket Australia agrees to BCCI for ODI series in January 2020

The Australian team is scheduled to visit India for a three-match ODI series in January next year. However, CA wanted the schedule to be changed as the home broadcaster was unhappy that the series against New Zealand will get affected, that too during the peak of Australian summer. The BCCI had even alleged CA of blackmailing them by restricting three women players Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy from playing in the Women’s T20 Challenge, in order to get their demands regarding the scheduling fulfilled. 

As per Future Tours Programme agreement between both the boards, Australia would tour India for ten days. They will play the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy,  a three-match test series, against New Zealand right before the India tour and wanted to continue with three more ODI games against the same side. However, the limited-overs series against the Kiwis has now been pushed to March. It is learnt that there were talks going on between BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and his counterpart from CA Kevin Roberts. The apex governing body confirmed the development on their website.

“Cricket Australia will honour its commitment to tour India for three ODIs in mid-January, which had caused a reshuffle of the home international schedule and pushed back the Chappell-Hadlee series,” the website stated.

“CA took the position that while January was our preference for these ODI matches, there are times we need to honour our commitments to work in the greater context of international cricket scheduling,” said CA’s Head of Cricket Operations Peter Roach.