The state of the Pietermaritzburg Oval and the embarrassment at Cricket SA
Lions opener Ryan Rickelton will be desperate to maintain his good form when his side face the KZN Dolphins in Durban on Wednesday night.
The pitch was reportedly littered with pins and shards of glass after Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube gave a state of the province address two weeks ago. On Tuesday, the CSA said that “alternative venues” would be sought for KZN Inland’s home games, without specifying which ones.
KZN Inland is due to host North West Dragons on Friday at the best online cricket betting sites in South Africa 2024. However, on Monday, North West announced that they will instead play the match in Potchefstroom, which will be the home ground for the visiting team.
“We are disappointed to be in this situation, but we will take all necessary steps to get our pitch back to a perfect playing condition,” said KZN Inland CEO Jason Sathiaseelan.
The problem of sponsorship
The tournament, despite the presence of all the national players in the first week, has no sponsor, while rows of empty stands greeted the players on the first weekend of matches.
Just over 1,000 spectators passed through the gates of the bullring, where the Lions, who featured eight Proteas and future star Kwena Mafaka, defeated the Boland Rocks by five Proteas by 44 runs.
There is still a long way to go, with 12 matches to play. There will be a slump, it’s only natural because there are so many matches, but it’s better to start well, which is what we did
If the Proteas have failed to attract an audience for the competition, which runs until the end of April, it’s hard to imagine what will bring the spectators behind the gates.
Matches in India
This week, some of the country’s most famous athletes will be travelling to India to play in the IPL, diluting the standard of the domestic competition and making it even more challenging for CSA marketers.
Rows of empty seats create an ugly backdrop for the biggest stars of local cricket. Certainly, the difference in how the T20 Challenge is marketed compared to the SA20 is stark, although there is also an element of “SA20 fatigue”, as one senior provincial union official put it, to consider.
Domingo said the length of the tournament – due to it being played home and away – meant his team did not get carried away with the good start they had made.
