Sport Industry Group

World Cup stadia not fit for cricket- 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00

South Africa will not be able to host a major international cricket tournament at the newly constructed World Cup stadia, Cricket South Africa has told Parliament.

CSA chief executive Gerald Majola told the portfolio committee on sport the pitches of the World Cup stadiums were too small for cricket and that only the Moses Mabhida stadium had the potential to host a cricket game.

Majola said this was caused by the failure to consult cricket authorities on the size of pitches before the construction of the World Cup soccer stadia and also slowed development of the sport in Polokwane, Rustenburg and Nelspruit.

‘Historically, our game had not been played in some of areas where some of stadiums were built,’ Majola said.

‘We saw an opportunity, but unfortunately we were not part of the designs of the stadiums.

‘If we had met before the time and considered the issues we would have known stadiums would have been accommodating others sports as well.’

Majola said International Cricket Council regulations stipulated that the minimum distance of the boundary square of the pitch had to be 137 metres and that the minimum distance of the straight boundary had to be 149 metres.

He said CSA had wanted to open up cricket by using stadiums in Polokwane, Rustenburg and Nelspruit to host a 20-over tournament to compete with the Indian Premier League (IPL).

‘We were hoping the stadiums were going to help us get into areas we had never been. We were really trying to get a tournament to be played similar to the IPL, but unfortunately due to the congestion of the future tour programme, which governs how cricket is played internationally, we could not find a gap for our own competition.

‘It would have meant we would have had an event annually in those three stadiums, which we could have hosted every year in August, maybe early September.’

August apparently was the only window when all other countries, except England, were not participating and were free to participate. This meant the CSA could have lured the best players in the world to the country.

Majola said the Moses Mabhida stadium was still 22m ‘short on the square’ but had been given clearance to host a festival game to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in South Africa.

‘For this particular game, because of its importance to South Africa, I had to motivate to ICC and ask for special dispensation.

‘The biggest capacity for cricket in South Africa is at Wanderers with 35,000. At the Mabhida we will have 70 000 spectators coming... We know that the day we sell the tickets, the tickets will be sold out.’

The stadium's management had indicated that it was considering removing the first six rows of seats around the stadium to accommodate an athletics track.

‘If that happens we will apply to the ICC for full status to utilise the Mabhida stadium,’ concluded Majola.