• Proteas to play Zimbabwe on Boxing Day

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    Alviro Petersen says the Proteas are going to play Zimbabwe in this year’s traditional Boxing Day Test, which could mark AB de Villiers’ return.

    It hasn’t yet been confirmed by Cricket South Africa, but former Proteas opener Petersen went on a revelation spree on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, stating that the Proteas will be hosting Zimbabwe for the Boxing Day Test in Port Elizabeth, and that is when AB de Villiers will be making his long-awaited return to the longest format.

    The news comes in the wake of India’s decision to move away from the traditional fixtures over the festive period, after they scheduled their series against Sri Lanka too close to the end of the year.

    Reports suggested earlier in the week that India will land in South Africa in the last week of December to play four Tests, five ODIs, and two T20s, and it will take a minimum of a week for them to get used to the conditions.

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    ‘We can’t make it make it in time. The Sri Lanka tour ends on December 24. After that, we need to give the boys a few days’ rest,’ a board official told ESPNcricinfo. 

    ‘The South Africa tour is a big one, so they need to play two warm-up games, so it will take at least 10 days [before the first Test].’

    That left CSA needing to find a new opponent to fill the slots at the end of December, with Afghanistan and Pakistan initially lined up as potentials. It would appear, according to Petersen’s tweet, that Zimbabwe might be the opponents.

    With AB de Villiers revealing that he’s going to return to the longest format after mid-October, this could be his first appearance in white clothing since the fourth Test against England at Centurion in January last year.

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