India vs. South Africa T20 International to be played at Durban Moses Mabhida Stadium
Soccer stadiums will now host cricket matches – this news comes as Cricket South Africa (CSA) has chosen Durban Moses Mabhida Stadium to host a T20 international between South Africa and India on 9th January, 2011. CSA Chief Executive Gerald Majola
is hoping that the stadium which hosted football matches during the FIFA World Cup will attract more audiences and set a precedent for other stadiums to open their doors for international cricket.
Majola was confident with his plans when he said, “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”.
Majola also believes that international cricket should utilise other stadium s as it attracts more people because of the capacity offered by these stadiums. Due to the recently concluded football World Cup, South Africa had to construct 5 new soccer stadiums
and renovate the existing ones. As T20 cricket draws more viewers, a match in a soccer stadium promises a massive crowd. A normal cricket stadium such as Kingsmead can host 25,000 spectators. Comparatively, Moses Mabhida Stadium is way ahead in terms of capacity
with a 62,760 seating capacity.
An official CSA statement said, “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 are”.
For CSA to hold cricket matches in soccer stadiums means that they have to come up to the International Cricket Council (ICC) prescribed playing regulations and conditions. Apparently, the Moses Mabhida Stadium up till now doesn’t fulfil that requirement.
However, the CSA believes the inclusion of the athletics track would give enough space for a T20 match to take place. Cricket http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 is further planning to request for a Test status for this venue.
Meanwhile, India and South Africa are to compete for the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Krish-Mackerdhuj-c71715 Trophy, which is named after the former CSA President and a pioneer of the first South African cricket tour to India in 1991. This encounter between the two teams will also decide
who is ranked as the world’s best Test team.
Smith added, “The number one Test match ranking is also a massive honour in our great game. We have had a very good run in this format over the past two years with away series wins in England and Australia and two drawn series in India.”
However, the South Africans have failed to show consistency at the highest level. They lost to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 at home, they were disappointing in the Champions Trophy they hosted in September and October 2009 and they drew the series against England at home soon
afterwards. However, the South Africans followed all the inconsistency and disappointment with an encouraging tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 on their home turf as well.
The South African home series against India is considered to be very important for both teams as it precedes the 50 over World Cup in 2011. They will play one T20 which is expected to be attended by the biggest cricketing crowd ever.
The South Africa-India Series will also consist of 3 Test matches, followed by 5 ODI’s. It would be interesting to see how the soccer stadium would play on the minds of the players on the field. One can only wait and see whether this experiment would work
for CSA or not.
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