ICC World Cup 2023: Dean Elgar Lashes Out At Cricket South Africa For Preferring SA20 Over Tests, Says 'We Can’t Butter Our Bread On Both Sides Here'

Former South Africa Test captain, Dean Elgar lashed out at Cricket South Africa for giving more priority to the T20 league, SAT20 over Test Cricket, and said that one cannot butter both sides of bread while attacking the cricket board.

The Proteas have focused more on the 20-over format franchise cricket over the old format. It is being said that from next year the apex body of South African cricket will send their second or third team for the two-match Test series against New Zealand since the first-team players will be busy with SAT20 to complete their contract with the franchise.

Last month, while speaking with City Press, Dean Elgar said that it is hard to accept the reality and mentioned that it is the players who suffer and said that most players want to play long-format cricket.

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Dean Elgar further added that many things come out of how Cricket South Africa views Test cricket.

“It’s tough to take. It shows what the narrative is when it comes to Test cricket, and again it’s the players who suffer. A high percentage of the players still really want to play Test cricket, and it’s just extremely sad and clarifies a lot of things when it comes to how Test cricket is viewed by the authorities,” Dean Elgar said.

That could cause a breakdown in the relationship: Dean Elgar

The former Test skipper, Dean Elgar lashed out at the authorities for planning to send a third team to New Zealand for the two-match Test series. Elgar believes that it will harm the cricket relationship between the two countries.

“We can’t butter our bread on both sides here. It’s lekker to have the franchise T20 competition, but what’s the bigger picture? How would New Zealand Cricket, with whom we probably have the strongest relationship of all countries, view us sending a ‘C’ side over there? That could cause a breakdown in the relationship,” Dean Algar added.

Countries like India and Australia are going to play five-match Test series, whereas the Proteas will not play more than two-game series in the 2023-2025 World Test Championship (WTC). Which will affect the country to rank higher in the WTC points table.

However, South Africa’s main focus is not at the ODI World Cup 2023 and they will soon be traveling to India to take part in the prestigious tournament. The Proteas will start their tournament against Sri Lanka on October 7th at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. South Africa will play against India on November 5th at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.