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CSA putting Pink ODI, New Year’s Test up for auction: report

The two popular annual fixtures could move from the Wanderers and Newlands respectively.

The Pink ODI is an annual match which helps raise funds for cancer research and awareness.

The Pink ODI is an annual match which helps raise funds for cancer research and awareness. © AFP

Cricket South Africa (CSA) is believed to have put the annual Pink ODI and New Year’s Test up for auction, which could move the two fixtures out of the Wanderers and Newlands.

A report in IOL claims that CSA is in moves to maximise the revenue from the two marquee games that South Africa play each year, having reportedly instructing the country’s provincial affiliates to bid for hosting rights for the Pink ODI and New Year’s Test.

In its report, IOL has quoted an email from CSA CFO Nassei Appriah to all the provincial associations as saying: “CSA management believes that in order to also generate revenues from the hosting of these cricket events, cities should be approached and requested to competitively bid for the (sought-after) matches”.

The Pink ODI, the proceeds of which help raise funds for research being done for cancer cures in South Africa, sees the national cricket team wear pink kits as pat of CSA’s PinkDrive initiative and is very popular among the country’s cricket fans. In its eight edition earlier this year, the Pink ODI between South Africa and Pakistan reportedly raised more than R1.7 million for cancer research being done at Johannesburg’s Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital.

England are scheduled to tour South Africa in late 2019, a series which is a lucrative one for CSA. It is believed that CSA’s new strategy of putting the annual Wanderers and Newlands fixtures up for auction has led to a delay in the naming of the fixtures for the England series.

According to the IOL report, the lacklustre response to the inaugural Mzansi Super League and the failure of the T20 Global League have forced CSA to look for ways to make up for losses.

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