Cricket SA to use drop-in pitches at four main World Cup venues

South Africa’s four major cricket venues — the Wanderers, SuperSport Park, Kingsmead and Newlands — will all use drop-in pitches for the 2027 Cricket World Cup. 

Cricket SA director of cricket Enoch Nkwe confirmed the development on Tuesday, saying the process of integrating drop-in wickets at the venues will start next season. 

“Over the past couple of months we have needed to explore different ways to redo wickets, or look at drop-in pitches.

“We have opted for drop-in wickets.”

Because South Africa won’t host any international matches next season — with the exception of five T20s against West Indies — CSA have earmarked next summer as the ideal time to install the surfaces. 

The details are being finalised, but pitches will be grown away from the venues and then be transported to the grounds, where they will be “dropped in” for matches. 

The state of pitches has been a growing concern for CSA in the past decade, with a number of centre squares ageing, while climate change has also had an affect on pitch preparation.

Last season’s debacle at Newlands, where the Proteas and India played a two-day Test on an inadequate surface, was deeply embarrassing for South African cricket and something CSA wants to avoid, particularly for the World Cup.   

“We are mindful that we want the main four wickets at each venue to be the best wickets available come 2027,” Nkwe said. He added that CSA had learnt from the controversy that engulfed the drop-in surface used for the T20 World Cup in New York earlier this year, which was described as inadequate by the ICC. 

Unlike that temporary venue built for the tournament and which was subsequently taken down the day after the last match was played there, CSA is giving its drop-in pitches time to stabilise.

The issue was finalised at a recent meeting of the groundsmen of all seven venues that will host matches in 2027. Besides the main venues in Johannesburg, Centurion, Durban and Cape Town; Bloemfontein, Gqeberha and East London, will also host World Cup matches in three years.

“To reconstruct a wicket takes 18 months and we don’t have a window like that in our schedule, especially at the main stadiums — not until next season. It’s been a concern for a few years. It was a matter of timing,” Nkwe said.

“From next season, the process will start on the side [of the pitch square] — we don’t have international fixtures at home next season and we identified it as the ideal time to do it.”

“There are no home series as it stands [next summer] — the only thing we have is SA20, so we have enough time to build those drop-in pitches. They are going to be ‘rested’ on the side of the boundaries.

“There is a plan for how we will do it. The focus is on the four main pitches in the middle.”

Nkwe said for now, the smaller venues “will be a more natural process”.

“Those grounds aren’t as busy and through the assessment [of the venues] they have been behaving a lot better than the major ones.”

* Cricket SA announced a three-year partnership with FlySafair on Tuesday that will see the airline become the official partner of the Proteas, flying both men's and women's teams to the different venues about country.