Domestic cricket season fixtures announced
Following months of speculation as to the start of the new domestic cricket season, Cricket South Africa released the new season's fixtures beginning on Monday, 2 November with the 4-Day Domestic Series.
Both the four day competition and the Momentum One Day Cup will follow revised formats which will see the six franchises split into two pools.
The season will also include a domestic T20 competition as a replacement for the Mzansi Super League that has been postponed until the end of 2021.
“We are pleased that no matches have been reduced despite the late start to the season,” said CSA Acting Chief Executive Kugandrie Govender. “Both the four-day series and the Momentum One-Day Cup will have the six competing teams divided into two pools of three teams each. They will play a double round of fixtures against teams in their own pool and a single round of cross-pool matches.
“This provides for a minimum of seven matches for each franchise and these will be followed by a five-day final at the conclusion of the CSA Four-Day Franchise Series contested by the two teams topping its respective pool.
"In the Momentum One-Day Cup after the conclusion of the preliminary round teams ending 1st. and 2nd. in each pool will contest a cross-pool semi-final each with the respective winners progressing through to the final."
The T20 competition will be shortened and each team will face each other once before a final between the top two teams on the log.
Govender mentioned that getting domestic cricketers back on the field is a crucial step in getting the Proteas ready for their upcoming commitments.
“I cannot stress enough the importance of our domestic system and the important role it plays in our talent development pipeline for the Proteas. One only has to look at the number of players who made successful international debuts in the three formats last season,” concluded Govender.
The Hollywoodbets Dolphins will begin their season with a red ball clash against the defending champions the Lions. It's one of the toughest tasks to begin your campaign against the reigning champions however Imraan Khan's team will hope to channel the same form they finished the four day competition with last season.
Dolphins coach Imraan Khan is looking forward to his players getting back on the field, especially in a game against the two-time defending champions.
"It's going to be a good test for us as a team to play them first up," Khan said. "We want to improve our four day cricket so there is probably no better match-up in the first game than the defending champions."
