Cricket South Africa (CSA) cricket director and former captain Graeme Smith has targeted Australian players for participating in the IPL. He recently expressed anger at the double standards of some players when the IPL 2021 was postponed following a massive surge in the cases of Covid-19.
This comes after Australia postponed their South Africa tour in February, earlier this year. The Australian team was supposed to tour South Africa for a three-match Test series, but they postponed the tour due to the Covid-19 at the very last moment.
Speaking to a leading sports website, Smith said, 'We saw that many players played in IPL 2021 and none of them expressed concern over being in the bio bubble. Some players featuring in the IPL are not making any noise over IPL's bio-bubble. After experiencing things, you see some things differently and it is showing the double character of some players. ' Graeme Smith's attack here was indirectly aimed at the Aussie players, as Cricket Australia postponed the South African tour a few months ago citing the Covid-19.
Cricket South Africa was very upset by this as the preparations for this tour were completed. At that time, many players who made noise did not raise questions about the IPL.
Cricket South Africa had also complained to the International Cricket Council about the cancellation of the tour by the Australian team and demanded compensation as well as points in the World Test Championship.