Proteas director of cricket Graeme Smith on Thursday confirmed that they will be touring the West Indies next month.
What he describes as a “crucial period for the players and management” with results not having gone the way of coach Mark Boucher’s men of late, Smith says they are in the process of finalising the tour with the Windies.
After that they will head to Ireland for three ODIs and T20Is, before sharpening up for the T20 World Cup in India during October and November with a further tour of Sri Lanka.
He explains: “The commitment is to go there for two Tests and the five T20s starting at the beginning of June.
“The team will go into a training camp at the end of May in the build-up to that.
“We will be starting with the two Tests and finishing with the five T20s.
“Because of Covid the restrictions and the red list, the squad for the T20s will go directly to Ireland for that tour.
“We will have a small break in August and then the team is scheduled to go to Sri Lanka in the build-up to the World Cup for a white-ball tour and then the [T20] World Cup [in India].”
Asked if the pressure is on coach Boucher, Smith says: “This is a crucial period for the players and management.
“When we started this season, if I think back to November, one of our main goals as a cricket department was to try and get as much cricket played as possible.
“We’ve tapped into about 32 players who’ve played for South Africa this season – 45 have been kitted out, so we really spread far and wide…
“It was a bit of an exploration period for the national team in terms of trying to identify players to take forward.
“But I do see the next period – from a results perspective – as crucial in the build-up to the World Cup… it’s a big six months ahead.”
Smith also spoke of the possiblity of a series against India, where a disastrous outbreak of Covid-19 saw the Indian Premier League suspended this week.
Biff says: “We we just need to give the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) time.”