Smith opens up about potential clash between Pakistan series and IPL

Cricket South Africa director of cricket Graeme Smith, in an online interaction on Monday, opened up about the recently-announced white-ball tour by Pakistan, which is likely to provide another headache for CSA as it will probably clash with the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL), expected to start in early April.

Several of South Africa's star players, including Kagiso Rabada, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Anrich Nortje, are committed to IPL teams as well as being contracted by CSA.

Smith said ideally he would like to see all South Africa's best players available for the Pakistan series but he admitted, "It's a little more complicated than that."

"We have also made a commitment to release our players over the years to IPL. There's always been a window that we have committed to as CSA and it's been in the calendar. It's something we need to robustly debate."

He said CSA was waiting for the dates for the IPL to be finalised.

He said internal discussions would take place in "coming days" after the South African team management returned from a tour of Pakistan which ended on Sunday.