Eight South African players currently participating in the IPL are expected to leave India by May 25 to prepare for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. Their No Objection Certificates (NOCs), as per the initial terms, are valid only until that date.
The players in question are Kagiso Rabada (Gujarat Titans), Lungi Ngidi (Royal Challengers Bengaluru), Tristan Stubbs (Delhi Capitals), Aiden Markram (Lucknow Super Giants), Ryan Rickelton and Corbin Bosch (both Mumbai Indians), Marco Jansen (Punjab Kings), and Wiaan Mulder (Sunrisers Hyderabad).
All eight are scheduled to return to South Africa ahead of the team’s departure to the UK on May 30. This arrangement would rule them out of the IPL playoffs, a point of ongoing discussion between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
National head coach Shukri Conrad reiterated that the May 25 deadline stands.
“The initial agreement with IPL-BCCI was, with the final being on the 25th, our players would return on the 26th, so that it allows them ample time before we fly out on the 30th,” Conrad said in Johannesburg after announcing South Africa’s WTC final squad.
“That is the ongoing conversation that is being had between people in a higher pay grade than I am – the director of cricket [Nkwe] and Pholetsi [Moselki, the CSA chief executive]. They’re dealing with that. We want our players back on the 26th and hopefully that comes to fruition.”