Cape Town set to miss out
Source -
news24.com
There is a possibility that Cape Town will not host a match in the Twenty20 international World Cup tournament next year.
The International Cricket Council announced this week that South Africa would host the first tournament in this format in September 2007.
However, cricket is usually not played at Newlands cricket ground until mid-October due to the Cape winter weather, and there is a good possibility the matches will take place in the central and northern parts of the country.
Cricket South Africa CEO, Gerald Majola confirmed they must still meet with the ICC over the number of fields to be used as well as how the series will be structured.
Majola says it will depend on when the tournament will start if Cape Town will host any matches.
"We always want to play in Cape Town. It's one of our best fields. However, it's a bit of a gamble to play cricket early on in September. This is one of the reasons why we're going to try hosting the tournament as late as possible in September."
Majola said the tournament will last just nine days and that 12 teams will take part. They are the 10 fully-fledged ICC members and candidate countries that will compete for the last places in the line-up.
Majola also confirmed though that India will play in the New Year's Test at Newlands.
India is to play three Tests and five one-day internationals in South Africa towards the end of the year, and wanted the tour to start earlier so that they could return home earlier.
The UCBSA however re-iterated that the New Year's Test at Newlands was one of the highlights of the local cricket season, and that as South Africa did not play it New Year's Test at home this year due to the tour to Australia, it was therefore non-negotiable.
T20, Twenty20 and Twenty20 Cup are registered trade marks of the England and Wales Cricket Board Limited (the “ECB”).
Products and services on this website are not offered in connection with, or with the endorsement of the ECB
