Gandhi-Mandela series likely between India and South Africa

Johannesburg, June 3: Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the BCCI are in talks to finalise details of a proposed Gandhi-Mandela series, to be played in both countries within the next two years.

CSA Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat announced this during the launch of new kit which the Proteas will wear from next month in all three forms of the international game.

"India has really warmed up to the idea of making a sort of an icon series between South Africa and India. So we will play four Tests in India and they will come back in 2018 and will play the equivalent. We want to style it as the Mandela-Gandhi series. We are working on that now to develop the details of the icon series," Lorgat said.

He also lauded the quality and calibre of some of the Proteas' international stars. "They are very sought after amongst all of the professional leagues, including the IPL. They are certainly capable of capturing the imagination of South Africa and the world."

Lorgat said CSA had focused on T20s in the past eighteen months and would now turn their attention on preparation for the World Twenty20 challenge in India in March next year.

Lorgat said with the huge amount of cricket that the Proteas play in the subcontinent these days the new kit, which was developed in record time by New Balance for the Bangladesh tour next month, was very welcome.

"Once upon a time we would wear anything and it did not really matter, but these days there is actually technology that goes into producing the kit and that makes a difference," Lorgat said.

Lorgat also reinforced CSA's plans to develop cricket at lower levels to feed into the national side through its transformation plans to include more black players.

"We have become a bit more aggressive in the transformation space and we make no apologies for that - it's the right thing to do, for two reasons. There is a moral obligation to get things right and equally if we want to sustain ourselves as the number one Test team in the world we must draw from a much wider pool," Lorgat concluded.

PTI