Durban to host two international fixtures

Durban's Kingsmead stadium is the beneficiary of an additional international fixture announced by CSA for the forthcoming season. A third T20 has been added to West Indies' tour of South Africa which initially consisted of three Tests, two T20s and five ODIs of which Kingsmead was only due to host one match.

The Boxing Day Test was moved from Durban to Port Elizabeth, leaving Kingsmead with just an ODI and limited opportunity for revenue over the summer. An additional T20 scheduled for January 14, two days before the ODI at the venue, will afford Kingsmead an opportunity to fill its stands for a second time in the season.

West Indies are the only visiting team in South Africa over the 2014/15 summer, which will be headlined by the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand from February. CSA have put their focus on preparing the national team for that tournament and have planned their domestic fixtures to give the players as much practice as possible.

In addition to the almost 30 ODIs - in Sri Lanka, Australia, Zimbabwe and at home - South Africa will play in the lead-up to the World Cup, the national players will also be available for the domestic fifty-over competition which has been split into two windows. The first part of the tournament will take place in October before the latter league stages and knockouts happen in January and February, just before the World Cup.

The season will kick off with the first-class competition which begins on September 25 and will have two rounds before breaking for the twenty-over tournament in November. CSA have planned a trio of triple headers after experimenting with the idea in the recently concluded season.

All six franchises will play on the same day when the competition gets underway in Johannesburg on Sunday November 2. They will also all be in action in Durban on November 16 and again in Bloemfontein on November 30, which will be the penultimate round of competition.

The rest of the first-class competition will run from the beginning of January through to the end of March. Before the start of next summer, South Africa have a busy program which includes tours of Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Australia (for ODIs only) while the A team will play a triangular tournament in Australia, which will also include India A.