South Africa agree to 'compressed' tour of India

South Africa have given their consent to a "compressed tour" of India, comprising two Tests and three One-Day Internationals, if the Board of Control for Cricket in India ensures minimum travel between matches during the series next year.

"We are actually compressing the tour a little bit more than we normally would," South African Cricketers Association Tony Irish said.

"There has been a process of consultation between SACA and Cricket South Africa (CSA) on the schedule and though it doesn't comply strictly with the guidelines, we are happy to compromise in order to ensure that Test matches and ODIs are played," he told Cricinfo.

According to the schedule sent by the BCCI, the Proteas will start their tour with the first Test from February 4 to 8 followed by the second from February 12 to 16.

The three one-dayers are slated for February 19, 22 and 25.

The South Africans have no issues with the proposed schedule provided the travelling time between venues is not too taxing on the players.

"At the moment there is probably a day's less break between the ODIs and we would've liked to see two more days of break between the Test matches," Irish said.

"We are prepared to go ahead if the logistics are okay. The day of travel between the matches should not be too long as we have only two rest and practice days. But if we are travelling between one end to other then we will need an extra day of rest," he added.

The Proteas were originally scheduled to play five one-dayers during the tour but the the BCCI requested them to play two Tests and a shortened three-match one-day series after India became the world's number one team in the longest format of the game.

The BCCI had earlier scheduled just seven Tests for the Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men, including two undecided matches against minnows Zimbabwe, in 2010.

South Africa agreed to the BCCI's request as the world No 2 team was also very eager to play more Tests next year.