'Three Most Powerful Nations in Cricket Want to Do Things Their Way'

Judge Zak Yacoob, the chair of CSA's interim board, has said that there is no justification for England to abandon their tour of South Africa. During a press conference, he said that he was 95% certain that Sri Lanka would be arriving ahead of their scheduled for their series in December and that the big three boards -- BCCI, CA and ECB act as "laws unto themselves".

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"What I want to negate is an idea that our provision of services was substandard and that there is any justification for the English saying they did not want to participate and go home," Judge Yacoob said. "The facts are that ultimately, they were negative. We have gone into or protocols and we think that our protocols have been very good.

"There may have been an issue of psychological troubles. People may have felt nervous about false positives. Our position is that we do not wish to blame the English, but we wish to say absolutely and completely that any notion that they went away because it was in any way our fault, is completely wrong.

"The only criticism I can make, and I am not even authorised to make it, is that we were too lax with the English and their desire to do things which in our strict view they shouldn't be doing."

"There is an awkward narrative coming out that third world countries can't manage these things properly. I can say we have been managing the virus much better than England. There was some attempt to ensure that in relation with what happened with England, Sri Lanka should not come here. They are coming next week, I hope."

Yacoob also went on to suggest that the protocols put in place by CSA, on the England team were not strict enough. Also there were reports that England players were permitted to play golf from the Vineyard hotel.

"Many aspects of the operational side are not working and I don't want to go into details of that because then those in charge of the operational side will start running to the newspapers to say how bad the board is," he said.

"The only criticism I can make, and I am not even authorised to make it, is that we were too lax with the English and their desire to do things which in our strict view they shouldn't be doing. We were stronger on preventing our players from doing things and we allowed the visitors a little more laxity. There's a courtesy thing, because they are visitors and so on."

"I don't think we want an apology from anyone but if they say lies about us, we will defend ourselves," he said. "I am prepared to leave it on the basis that we do understand the sensitivities of the matter. We have got this virus for the first time and therefore people can be put off."

He further said, "[On] Australia, I have no information, but my understanding of the cricket politics is that the three most powerful nations in cricket - Australia and England are two of them, and I think you know who the third one is - want to do things their way and want to ensure the less powerful nations play ball with them," he said.

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"Politically, it depends on what Australia thinks is in its political interests, depending on what has happened with England. I don't know what Australia will do. The powerful people, and Australia is a powerhouse in cricket, are usually laws unto themselves.

Graeme Smith though has confirmed that talks with Australia will begin next week. "We are only having our first operational planning meeting with Cricket Australia next week. There has been only engagement up to this point," Smith said.

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• cricket australia
• csa
• ecb
• south africa vs england 2020
• Zak Yacoob