The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) annual general meeting in Durban last week confirmed that Cricket South Africa will receive just under R500-million per year from the cricketing body over the next four years.

While it is overshadowed by India’s whopping approximate R4-billion, it is still an improvement on the previous four-year cycle.

“Everything is relative. I’m quite happy, I’m happy that it improved slightly from the last one,” CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki said to Daily Maverick.

“The nature of the beast is it would always be nice to get more but I’m happy. It will definitely assist us to plug our holes.

“It’s not like [CSA] has done something wrong, it’s just the nature of cricket economics.

“India will always get the biggest slice because 80% of the [incoming] revenue is coming from them.”

One of the criteria — for gaining a larger slice off the ICC piece when the disbursement is reviewed in four years’ time — includes performance at ICC events throughout the cycle.

With a 50-over World Cup in India in October and a T20 World Cup in West Indies and USA next year, South Africa have an opportunity to rectify their recent abysmal performances — the Proteas have not made the semi-finals of any of the last four World Cups.

Moseki has also confirmed CSA’s intention to grow the game locally, to gain more fans of the sport and in turn more money in CSA’s coffers.

 “If you look at our strategy, one of the goals is to continue to grow cricket,” Moseki said.

“It’s a continuous thing because South Africans are sports mad and there are multiple sports codes that they follow. So, all of us are fighting for the love and affection and the wallets of the public.

“After the SA20 especially, we’ve tried to make it more attractive for spectators to come [to stadiums].

“All of us are fighting for the eyeballs, we’re fighting for bums on seats, we’re fighting for the wallet… and South Africans have a lot of options.

“Our competitors are not only other sports, but it’s also everything else, like e-gaming. It’s a constant battle, but it’s one of our strategic goals to continuously work on increasing the popularity of cricket.”

Tony De Zorzi of the Proteas during day 1 of the first Test against West Indies at SuperSport Park on 28 February, 2023 in Centurion, South Africa. (Photo: Lee Warren / Gallo Images / Getty Images)

Finding the gaps

The Proteas have two confirmed tours after the 50-over World Cup. An incoming, one-month, three-format series against India and a two-match Test tour to New Zealand follows in February.

According to the Future Tours Programme, it will be the last time South Africa play Test cricket until August next year when they tour the West Indies.

South Africa will also not play any three-match Test series’ until 2026 when they take on Australia and England at home — between that time there are two 20-over World Cups scheduled to take place.

“The biggest problem is the lack of time. We would have loved to have India for a three-match series but unfortunately, they are here for a month and in that month we had to squeeze in Tests and white-ball cricket,” Moseki said.

“We still have a three-match series against England, against Australia but for all the other [tours] the biggest challenge would be finding space for [three-match tours].”

The confined international calendar as well as the plethora of T20 leagues all over the world, means that CSA is looking at creative ways to find opposition to play in a bid to play more bilateral cricket outside of the Future Tours Programme.

 “What I have committed to over the next four years during this cycle: I’ll try to see if I can get more (cricket) content even from the teams who are already committed to coming.”

“If suddenly our schedules open up and both parties — because it is not just us, everyone playing also have other commitments — but if suddenly there’s a gap hell we would definitely be willing to [arrange more matches].

“Where we have gaps and we can find another country that’s got a gap then we can try to see if they can come here.

“It will be non-context Tests but it will be Test cricket. So that’s really what we’re trying. Even if we get two or three additional Tests, that will still be something good.”

However, finding space and filling it with Test match cricket is a lot more challenging than filling it with a 50-over or 20-over match.

“It’s far easier to add additional white-ball content than a Test because a Test requires at least five days,” Moseki said.

“You have to budget at least five days plus maybe two days in between. You need at least seven days extra for an additional Test, unlike with an ODI with T20 where you can actually have an additional one and then you only have two additional days in a tour.

“Getting in an extra week on a very cramped calendar for everyone becomes quite a challenge.”

Kagiso Rabada of the Proteas celebrates the wicket of Sam Curran of England during the first ODI against England at Mangaung Oval, on 27 January, 2023 in Bloemfontein. (Photo: Lee Warren / Gallo Images / Getty Images)

Getting creative

Australia will be touring South Africa at the end of August until the middle of September for a five-match One-Day International series and three T20 Internationals, in preparation for the World Cup in October.

The home cricket season usually starts in October in South Africa because of the inclement weather around the country during the middle of the year.

But in an effort to free up the compact calendar, CSA and Moseki are attempting to start the season earlier with the series against Australia serving as a case study for hosting cricket in the winter in South Africa.

“The Australia tour is going to be quite interesting to see if this is a window that we can use,” Moseki said. “The curators will tell us that.”

“They will tell us after that series to say we have pitches that can actually host a Test during that period. Then that clearly then opens another window especially for Test cricket and then we can see who’s available during that time over the next four years then we can bring them over.

“We’ve never started our international season that early… So it’s going to be quite interesting to see how the wickets are playing during the Australia tour, to see if we can host a Test sometime in July, August in the future.” DM