Centurion keeps Boxing Day Test
Centurion has been given another Boxing Day Test for Christmas‚ but that means the season will be less than festive at Kingsmead.
Having for years laboured under the misapprehension that people go on holiday to Durban in the summer to watch cricket‚ Cricket South Africa (CSA) last season moved the match that starts on December 26 to the Highveld.
That approach has been followed again in the fixtures for 2019-20‚ which were announced on Friday‚ with Centurion hosting the first of the four Tests South Africa will play against England next summer.
Durban has been relegated to staging a one-day international and a T20 against England‚ and doesn’t feature on the itinerary for the three white-ball games in each format Australia will play in February and March.
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The international summer will be relatively short‚ running from December 26 to March 7‚ but as it features two of the biggest box office teams in the game it will help CSA ease their debts.
It seems CSA have also found other ways to do so‚ what with a release quoting chief executive Thabang Moroe as saying: “I am delighted also to announce that we will be working closely with SA Tourism around the Test host venues of Pretoria‚ Cape Town‚ Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg to ensure that this series creates a win-win situation both for cricket and the South African economy.”
Fixtures:
South Africa v England:
December 26-30: 1st Test‚ Centurion
January 3-7: 2nd Test‚ Newlands
January 16-20: 3rd Test‚ St George’s Park
January 24-28: 4th Test‚ Wanderers
February 1: 1st ODI‚ Newlands
February 7: 2nd ODI‚ Kingsmead
February 9: 3rd ODI‚ Wanderers
February 12: 1st T20‚ East London
February 14: 2nd T20‚ Kingsmead
February 16: 3rd T20‚ Centurion
South Africa v Australia:
February 21: 1st T20‚ Wanderers
February 23: 2nd T20‚ St George’s Park
February 26: 3rd T20‚ Newlands
February 29: 1st ODI‚ Paarl
March 4: 2nd ODI‚ Bloemfontein
March 7: 3rd ODI‚ Potchefstroom