Cape Town - Free State Cricket today welcomed the news that Sushil Kumar’s City Sports has become the T20 Global League franchise to be based at their Mangaung Headquarters.
“This is wonderful news for our fans who will have the opportunity to watch world-class players in action on a regular basis and I can assure them that they will be very warmly welcomed by the people of Bloemfontein and indeed by the whole Free State,” commented Free State Chief Executive, Johan van Heerden. “It also, of course offers huge opportunities for business and the general economy in our area.
“Our ground has been the setting for many memorable Test matches, probably most notably when the Proteas beat India by nine wickets with Herschelle Gibbs, Lance Klusener, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag (on debut) all scoring centuries and Shaun Pollock claiming a 10-wicket haul.
“It is also the ground where one of our favourite sons, Allan Donald, became the first Protea to take 300 Test wickets and where Makhaya Ntini claimed his maiden five-wicket haul.”
“We are most grateful to Cricket South Africa for the project they have launched to upgrade all the international grounds. We will be spending approximately R7.2-million on ground upgrades,” concluded Van Heerden.
This includes upgrades to lighting, scoreboards, change rooms, umpires change room and viewing area, media centre, scorers box, hospitality areas, training nets, pavilions, public toilets, stadium experience and IT infrastructure.