Publications
Partners
Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – Cricket South Africa have acknowledged alarm over surprisingly low attendances at the two-match Standard Bank Pro20 international series between South Africa and England.
And, although no official word is yet forthcoming, Sport24 understands that CSA officials are mulling over the possibility that the Highveld has commanded a disproportionate share of blue-chip matches involving the national side of late.
The first match at the Wanderers on Friday, a day/night encounter, lured only 16 600 people to the 34 000-capacity (including suites) venue, while Sunday’s daytime follow-up, marked by Graeme Smith and Loots Bosman’s blistering partnership of 170 in 13 overs for the Proteas, drew a particularly unusual 7 934 fans to crowd-friendly SuperSport Park with a capacity of almost 20 000.
And these for matches in the game’s newest and most popular format, which are more used to attracting full houses to South African venues and many others in the world.
In a statement to Sport24, CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said: “The attendance figures for the first two games are extremely concerning – the Proteas usually attract full houses.
“Various reasons have been put forward for this, including school exams being held at the same time and the global economic crisis.
“Cricket South Africa, in association with IFM Sports Marketing Surveys, will be taking to the streets to find out why people are not coming to cricket.
“We are tackling this now as we do not want the Barmy Army (England’s most vocal fans) to arrive in their numbers for the Test series and feel like it is a home series.
“We need to show the Proteas that we are 100 percent South Africa and are behind them all the way.”
What makes the sub-standard gates for the Pro20 series, shared 1-1, all the more worrying is that CSA had hardly been inactive on the marketing and advertising front in advance of England’s summer tour here.
They have been running a “Pure Protea 100 percent South African” advertising campaign aimed at creating maximum awareness around Proteas fixtures.
In the lead-up to the first of five one-day internationals at the Wanderers on Friday, additional promotions and PR are being undertaken to boost ticket sales.
It is probably not out of the question that unfavourable weather forecasts ahead of the two Pro20 clashes partly influenced attendance.
For the Wanderers game, in particular, which was eventually decided on the Duckworth/Lewis method, forecasts up to 48 hours before had warned of heavy rain and even flash floods.
But CSA may well debate the wisdom of scheduling both 20-overs matches at Highveld locations, especially coming not long after the ICC Champions Trophy which was similarly limited to both SuperSport Park and the Wanderers.
The scheduling of the latter event was dictated partly by convenient logistical considerations but also because the spring weather tends to be more settled and warm in Johannesburg and Pretoria than it is at, for instance, Cape Town, where there is a rich history of robust gates for major cricket internationals.
It is known that officials at Newlands have been keen to get a slice of the Pro20 international pie – the Proteas very seldom play these fixtures outside of the Highveld during a bilateral series.
The only exception was during 2007/08, when West Indies played one of two Pro20 internationals at Port Elizabeth and won a low-scoring, weather-curtailed contest.
An irony about Cape Town is that, when the maiden ICC World Twenty20 was held in South Africa earlier that season, that city largely survived the considerable risk involved in staging matches there as early as September.
And it becomes the most reliable venue in the country from a weather point of view at the height of the summer, when the Highveld gets its disruptive thunderstorms and Durban also becomes moist, humid and sometimes overcast.
*Newlands is almost a sellout for the third ODI on November 27. There were only 1 300 tickets still available on Tuesday morning, according to Cape Cobras spokesperson Rob Peters.
Cape Town – Cricket South Africa have acknowledged alarm over surprisingly low attendances at the two-match Standard Bank Pro20 international series between South Africa and England.
And, although no official word is yet forthcoming, Sport24 understands that CSA officials are mulling over the possibility that the Highveld has commanded a disproportionate share of blue-chip matches involving the national side of late.
The first match at the Wanderers on Friday, a day/night encounter, lured only 16 600 people to the 34 000-capacity (including suites) venue, while Sunday’s daytime follow-up, marked by Graeme Smith and Loots Bosman’s blistering partnership of 170 in 13 overs for the Proteas, drew a particularly unusual 7 934 fans to crowd-friendly SuperSport Park with a capacity of almost 20 000.
And these for matches in the game’s newest and most popular format, which are more used to attracting full houses to South African venues and many others in the world.
In a statement to Sport24, CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said: “The attendance figures for the first two games are extremely concerning – the Proteas usually attract full houses.
“Various reasons have been put forward for this, including school exams being held at the same time and the global economic crisis.
“Cricket South Africa, in association with IFM Sports Marketing Surveys, will be taking to the streets to find out why people are not coming to cricket.
“We are tackling this now as we do not want the Barmy Army (England’s most vocal fans) to arrive in their numbers for the Test series and feel like it is a home series.
“We need to show the Proteas that we are 100 percent South Africa and are behind them all the way.”
What makes the sub-standard gates for the Pro20 series, shared 1-1, all the more worrying is that CSA had hardly been inactive on the marketing and advertising front in advance of England’s summer tour here.
They have been running a “Pure Protea 100 percent South African” advertising campaign aimed at creating maximum awareness around Proteas fixtures.
In the lead-up to the first of five one-day internationals at the Wanderers on Friday, additional promotions and PR are being undertaken to boost ticket sales.
It is probably not out of the question that unfavourable weather forecasts ahead of the two Pro20 clashes partly influenced attendance.
For the Wanderers game, in particular, which was eventually decided on the Duckworth/Lewis method, forecasts up to 48 hours before had warned of heavy rain and even flash floods.
But CSA may well debate the wisdom of scheduling both 20-overs matches at Highveld locations, especially coming not long after the ICC Champions Trophy which was similarly limited to both SuperSport Park and the Wanderers.
The scheduling of the latter event was dictated partly by convenient logistical considerations but also because the spring weather tends to be more settled and warm in Johannesburg and Pretoria than it is at, for instance, Cape Town, where there is a rich history of robust gates for major cricket internationals.
It is known that officials at Newlands have been keen to get a slice of the Pro20 international pie – the Proteas very seldom play these fixtures outside of the Highveld during a bilateral series.
The only exception was during 2007/08, when West Indies played one of two Pro20 internationals at Port Elizabeth and won a low-scoring, weather-curtailed contest.
An irony about Cape Town is that, when the maiden ICC World Twenty20 was held in South Africa earlier that season, that city largely survived the considerable risk involved in staging matches there as early as September.
And it becomes the most reliable venue in the country from a weather point of view at the height of the summer, when the Highveld gets its disruptive thunderstorms and Durban also becomes moist, humid and sometimes overcast.
*Newlands is almost a sellout for the third ODI on November 27. There were only 1 300 tickets still available on Tuesday morning, according to Cape Cobras spokesperson Rob Peters.
