Cricket, a dubious saviour of South African Soccer grounds
South Africa’s sports management is anticipating Cricket as an unlikely rescuer of the country’s soccer stadium that hosted the recently concluded mega event that was the Football World Cup. Cricket South Africa (CSA) is planning to stage T20 international matches at the Durban venue, the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 went through a huge soccer ground construction programme to prepare for hosting the soccer extravaganza. For the month-long event the country constructed five new arenas while another five got renovations of varying degrees.
The sports management of South Africa is worried about the future of these newly constructed and renovated stadiums as the tournament reached an end with Spain lifting the FIFA cup for the first time in the history of Football World Cups. The management has concerns that after so much construction, the stadiums would become obsolete.
However, the decision of Cricket South Africa to host a T20 international against India next January at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban would open the way for other stadiums as well to make use of them in a parallel capacity.
The Chief Executive of Cricket South Africa, Gerald Majola said that the T20 international between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 and South Africa would help CSA to take the game to everyone. Majola said that for this purpose the CSA is planning to utilise the stadiums used for the recently concluded Football World Cup.
"The game between South Africa and India is important for us to be able to take cricket to everyone. We would like to utilise some of the soccer stadiums that were used during the World Cup to help us in that effort", Chief Executive of CSA Gerald Majola told media reporters.
Though he said that the CSA cannot set up its own Indian Premier League in the near future as there is no window for it but he expressed CSA’s intent of initiating a domestic series like the lucrative IPL T20 tournament after establishing it in domestic cricket. The Chief Executive said that the soccer stadiums would be utilised to promote domestic cricket in South Africa. He further added that the CSA is planning to extend the domestic cricket season in the country.
"We would like to see if it is possible to play at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg and a few other soccer grounds because we would be able to extend our season into August but it is important to see what the viability of the grounds is".
The Moses Mabhida Stadium, in its current capacity, does not meet the minimum playing space requirement of the International Cricket Council (ICC) but the CSA chief executive Majola said that they are planning to add an athletics track in the stadium and that would be helpful in increasing the available space.
Majola further added that if the Moses Mabhida Stadium could reach the playing regulations of International Cricket Council, then Cricket South Africa would try to get full test status for the Durban venue.
To emphasize its commitment to having international cricket at the ground, CSA has planned to construct a permanent pitch rather than using a drop-in for the T20 international against India next January.
Municipal Manager of Durban, Mike Sutcliffe, told news reporters that hosting a T20 international at the Moses stadium was part of the stadium’s long-term plan to make it sustainable. He said that when the construction of a new stadium at Durban was sanctioned, the municipal committee developed a strategy '2010 and beyond' whose purpose was long term sustainability of the stadium.
"Our first objective was to develop an iconic stadium that would make for a great soccer ground, we also had to break into other markets and Twenty20 cricket is a perfect sport for us", Sutcliffe explained.
Durban already has a 25,000 capacity cricket test venue, the Kingsmead cricket ground, but Moses Mabhida Stadium is planned to be a 62,760-seat venue.
Tags: