Brisbane Heat have been left irate at the revelation that Dale Steyn
will miss his return bout with Ricky Ponting in the BBL after the Cape
Cobras withdrew his permission to play at the last possible moment.
Instead of flying from Perth to Brisbane ahead of the Heat's match
against Ponting's Hobart Hurricanes on Sunday, Steyn will return home in
order to play for the Cobras in a domestic limited overs semi-final on
the same day.
Having signed Steyn up for the one-off fixture six weeks ago and secured
a no objection certificate from the South Africna board, the Heat are
understandably angered by the loss of their big-name signing a mere four
days before curtain-up at the Gabba.
"We conducted all of our negotiations with Dale and his management in
good faith and fulfilled all requirements that the BBL needed in order
to sign him as one of our international players,'' the Heat general
manager Andrew Blucher said.
"We provided signed contracts, a NOC that was provided six weeks ago by
Cricket South Africa and were completely up front in what we proposed.
"We now find ourselves less than a week out from the opening game
without a key element of our pre-game preparations and that is terribly
disappointing for the team and our fans and members, who were eagerly
anticipating seeing Dale play.
"Dale is also unhappy with this outcome. He was looking forward to the
match, and of course has a very good relationship with our coach Darren
Lehman.
"He and his manager are embarrassed and upset about the way things have
turned out, considering we were crystal clear with what we had
communicated to Cricket South Africa.
"We would have imagined that CSA and the Cobras would have consulted and
worked out the various scenarios that would have been involved. For
that not to happen is quite extraordinary and highly unprofessional."
The Cobras' unwillingness to allow Steyn to play for the Heat only
emerged in the aftermath of South Africa's win in the third Test in
Perth, as it became apparent he might be available for their domestic
commitments. The batsman Faf du Plessis, who is due to take part on the
semi-final for the Titans, will play in the BBL tournament opener for
the Melbourne Renegades on Friday.
Jacques Faul, the CSA chief executive, expressed regret at the episode.
"We regret having to withdraw the NOC. We are not in a position to
determine which teams will be involved in the final play-off matches at
the end of the competition," he said. "Players and their agents also
have a duty to consult with the home franchise in this regard.
"We have an obligation to our local sponsors and franchises to play the
Proteas wherever possible. We will also consider withdrawing a NOC due
to workload management or safety reasons.If Cobras were not in the play
off, I am sure it would not have been a problem. We apologise if the
one-off match in Australia caused so much drama. In future it might be
better not clear any players in our season,in the past we have aimed to
help where we can. We also advise players and agents to first negotiate
with their home franchise. I have explained this to [Cricket Australia
CEO] James Sutherland during our meeting in Dubai.
"We are thankful for the support of our sponsors and cricket supporters
who have the right to see the best in the world play in the domestic
competitions. If you assess the number of players from SA playing
outside the country and the number of NOC's we issue, it is clear that
we acknowledge the opportunities available but unfortunately have to
balance this with being fair to local sponsors.
"In saying all of this ,we have to admit that releasing the initial NOC
was a mistake, we should have waited to see who is in the play off. We
apologise for that."
Lehmann said he would now attempt in the little time he has remaining to
find a replacement international player for the match. "We had a spot
free so while it is quite late in the piece, we had looked at some
contingency plans with a few players in the event we had something like
this happen," Lehmann said. "We'll get on the phone and email and see
what is possible."
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