00:00:00
Speaker 1: Something that's been puzzling me as we enjoy what is, you know, a really quite excellent summer of cricket. Three tests against Australia. We're well into the third of those. It's been a brilliant series so far. Two test matches against Bangladesh and then a real money-spinning series, but also one that will be fabulous for cricket lovers. England, I beg your pardon, coming to South Africa for three tests. The first of those at the Wanderers. Then at Centurion over Boxing Day and the traditional New Year's test at Newlands and tickets going very fast for that. I thought I'd like to go to the test against Bangladesh. And when I go to test cricket, I try to go for more than one day only to discover to my real surprise. And I have to say unhappiness that there's only one day of the first test against Bangladesh that will be on a Sunday on a weekend. And I thought, well, no matter, I'll go in Centurion. Well, that's even worse. The test runs from Monday to Friday. And when I look back at the test matches we played against Australia, second test, which was an absolute cracker down in Tiberia, only one day of weekend play there again. It was the Sunday when it started and in Cape Town once again. Only one day of weekend play. I'm wondering what's going on there. And I thought it would be good to hear from Cricket South Africa as to what the logic of the scheduling is. So we join now from Newlands by the CEO of Cricket South Africa, Pauletti Museki. Welcome and thanks very much for giving us your time.
00:01:35
Speaker 2: Hi, hello.
00:01:38
Speaker 3: Yes, can you hear me?
00:01:40
Speaker 2: Yes, I can, you know. Perfect.
00:01:42
Speaker 3: And good afternoon to you. We can hear you perfectly. So, Mr.
00:01:45
Speaker 1: Musecki, I don't know if you heard my introduction, but... Test cricket crowds tend to be sparse. It's a form of the game that is in need of as much love as we can give it. And as I've pointed out, for what will turn out to be three tests in a row, there's only one day of weekend play. And for the fourth of those games, the second test against Bangladesh, there's no days of weekend cricket at all.
00:02:12
Speaker 3: What's the thinking behind that?
00:02:16
Speaker 2: John, thank you for having me and good afternoon to our listeners. It's really the scheduling challenges that we basically are faced with as cricket, you know. Ideally, we would love to have all our tests to actually start on a Thursday or Friday latest, but unfortunately, it's a very congested calendar, you know, and that has really has necessitated us to be quite creative on how we basically go about our scheduling. You know, you know, during the days Australia, as an example, would have come to South Africa about two months between our months, but those days are really long gone, you know. So you normally have about a month to six weeks where you basically have to squeeze in multiple formats and, you know, try to maximize, you know, attendance as much as possible. But it's definitely not something that is ideal. We'd really, really love to have, like, we can fix it so that then we can have even more fans coming to the stadium. But it's just really the challenges we're facing.
00:03:14
Speaker 3: So I looked ahead at the calendars of other countries.
00:03:16
Speaker 1: And I choose England, Australia, and India because there is a perception that they dominate world cricket. They get what they want, and they give all the other countries, despite us being world test champions, whatever they feel they can spare for us.
00:03:32
Speaker 3: This is how their program looks.
00:03:34
Speaker 1: So England and Australia have six test matches coming up next year. One of them in Australia, it's a centenary event. Occasion, I believe, and then Five Days of the Ashes. Every single one of them has two days of weekend play. India are visiting one of the second-tier countries like us in New Zealand. Two days of weekend play in each of those. India are hosting Australia, five test matches, 10 days of weekend play. In other words, for every test, they seem able to overcome their scheduling. They have very popular domestic programs like us, and we're not jammed up by the SA20 in these months of the year. How come those countries can do it when we can't?
00:04:18
Speaker 2: Well, as I said, it's a situation that we find. So if Australia basically we've got a month or six weeks, to host an Australian tour. And in that six weeks, we needed to play those ODIs as an example. If we didn't have the ODIs, we clearly would have had tests starting over a weekend, as we said. But unfortunately, we had a certain amount of time that we could actually host them before they had to go back to Australia for their other engagement, which really necessitated us basically trying to see how can we actually, you know, schedule these multiple matches faced with a situation that we're really, really facing. I'd love to have Australia, I'd love to have Australia be here for like two months, like it used to happen in Nepal, you know, but unfortunately it is what it is currently that we do have a limited amount of time that these guys can dedicate to tour us and to tour many other countries. You know, you made a perfect example. They'll be doing what, I think five tests against India and England and they'll be there for like two and a half months or something like that. You know, I think the last We haven't been able to, unfortunately, yeah, get to that point where we can actually be able to agree for them to be here for two months.
00:05:31
Speaker 3: Well, but with respect, Mr.
00:05:34
Speaker 1: Moseki, between them staying two months and, for example... starting the Cape town test a day later so that the match concludes on Sunday. Um, and, and it's very, you know, I, it certainly caught my ear when you said, well, you know, they have their engagements and let me put this bluntly. Do you think we're being disrespected? Um, despite the fact that we are world test champions, because I don't see how it could fundamentally affect the Australians to stay. If we'd put to them our business case and if, Test cricket is not healthy all around the world, despite what seems to be their priorities of those three countries playing each other. They must know with the World Test Championship that unless everybody's gaining something, ultimately everyone's going to lose. I mean, were they asked to, did we ask them to make day five a Sunday?
00:06:27
Speaker 2: We knew that they needed to fly out on a Sunday. And they made it very clear because they do have inbound tours. in Australia, I think about five days later. And leaving South Africa to Australia, you can imagine, is quite a long flight. And they needed some time, especially for that player to recover. So they told us that they needed to leave South Africa on Sunday. So I don't want to say that we've been disrespected. I don't want to comment on that.
00:06:54
Speaker 3: I'm happy to say that for you.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I still have a relationship to manage. But we did understand that they needed to fly out on Sunday, Sunday, Monday, because even the whole group couldn't actually get flights for one day. So they had to split their travel plans between Sunday and Monday. So if we played an additional day, then it would have been Monday and Tuesday, you know, which I guess would have compromised their own season back home. Because I know they're hosting, I think they're hosting India or something, not England or something like that. You know, five days after the end of our own tour, you know.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: Those are one-day games, so the squad would change substantially, but... That's Australia and their attitude and I accept that you need to be diplomatic about it. There's another element to this though that I want to get your thoughts on Mr. Moseki and I know this isn't Cricket South Africa's direct responsibility but you must have feedback from unions. A large part of the health of cricket and its ecosystem is the people who take out concessions whether it's to make plates of chips or pizzas or whatever it is. I mean, they must experience a substantial income dip if a test is not scheduled to include two days of weekend play. I mean, is this not a consideration that if the game is to thrive, even the people who don't actually play or coach cricket, but nevertheless contribute to the game, really ought to be getting the maximum out of it because they're putting in as well.
00:08:33
Speaker 2: No, no, no, and you're right. Like, you know, this type of scheduling does impact the whole ecosystem, the whole ecosystem outside the consumer themselves. Remember, ticket revenue is quite an important source of, like, you know, total income back. You know, so it does impact us as Cricket South Africa. I know it definitely impacts our unions as well, because we obviously can't maximize ticket sales as well. But also the people who you spoke about who are selling there. So it is definitely something that is quite unfortunate. And we always try to minimize that impact as much as possible. But unfortunately, it does get to a stage where we basically, despite the best effort, we still have to come up with, like, you know, yeah, you know, something that we have to come up with. But it is definitely something that concerns all of us. But even us, as I said, you know, the top two test countries are currently playing. And for us, the ticketing revenue would have been quite significant had we been able to include weekend games for all these tests, you know. So there's quite a lot of sacrifice for us as well as a federation, you know. So it's not ideal, but as I said, the current environment really forces us to be where we are. You know, the Shazam challenge that all of us have.
00:09:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:09:51
Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure many of our listeners will have some views on that. But thank you for giving us your time today on the line to us from Newlands. CEO of Cricket South Africa, Puletsi Museki. Yeah, I mean, he's not going to say that we're being disrespected by these other countries. So I'm perfectly happy to say that. I cannot believe there'd be any reason why day five at Newlands, which itself is not ideal because traditionally test matches are have been Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. And here's my question for you, because somebody took this up with me when I posted about this on Facebook. You can go and check out some of the reactions. And I said, well, a lot of people won't come anyway. But I'd be very keen to know from you, I mean, if there was more play over the weekend, even against a country that isn't one of our traditional and major rivals like Bangladesh, would you be inclined to go? I know I would absolutely have gone there on Saturday afternoon. And Sunday, you know, and taking people with me who hadn't watched Test cricket before. So I think there's the immediate revenue. There's the pizza or whatever I might have bought while I was there. And there's the opportunity to bring people who don't know the five-day game to come in and see it and enjoy it and maybe bring themselves back next time it's played.
00:11:10
Speaker 3: My thoughts, let's get yours.
Speaker 1: Something that's been puzzling me as we enjoy what is, you know, a really quite excellent summer of cricket. Three tests against Australia. We're well into the third of those. It's been a brilliant series so far. Two test matches against Bangladesh and then a real money-spinning series, but also one that will be fabulous for cricket lovers. England, I beg your pardon, coming to South Africa for three tests. The first of those at the Wanderers. Then at Centurion over Boxing Day and the traditional New Year's test at Newlands and tickets going very fast for that. I thought I'd like to go to the test against Bangladesh. And when I go to test cricket, I try to go for more than one day only to discover to my real surprise. And I have to say unhappiness that there's only one day of the first test against Bangladesh that will be on a Sunday on a weekend. And I thought, well, no matter, I'll go in Centurion. Well, that's even worse. The test runs from Monday to Friday. And when I look back at the test matches we played against Australia, second test, which was an absolute cracker down in Tiberia, only one day of weekend play there again. It was the Sunday when it started and in Cape Town once again. Only one day of weekend play. I'm wondering what's going on there. And I thought it would be good to hear from Cricket South Africa as to what the logic of the scheduling is. So we join now from Newlands by the CEO of Cricket South Africa, Pauletti Museki. Welcome and thanks very much for giving us your time.
00:01:35
Speaker 2: Hi, hello.
00:01:38
Speaker 3: Yes, can you hear me?
00:01:40
Speaker 2: Yes, I can, you know. Perfect.
00:01:42
Speaker 3: And good afternoon to you. We can hear you perfectly. So, Mr.
00:01:45
Speaker 1: Musecki, I don't know if you heard my introduction, but... Test cricket crowds tend to be sparse. It's a form of the game that is in need of as much love as we can give it. And as I've pointed out, for what will turn out to be three tests in a row, there's only one day of weekend play. And for the fourth of those games, the second test against Bangladesh, there's no days of weekend cricket at all.
00:02:12
Speaker 3: What's the thinking behind that?
00:02:16
Speaker 2: John, thank you for having me and good afternoon to our listeners. It's really the scheduling challenges that we basically are faced with as cricket, you know. Ideally, we would love to have all our tests to actually start on a Thursday or Friday latest, but unfortunately, it's a very congested calendar, you know, and that has really has necessitated us to be quite creative on how we basically go about our scheduling. You know, you know, during the days Australia, as an example, would have come to South Africa about two months between our months, but those days are really long gone, you know. So you normally have about a month to six weeks where you basically have to squeeze in multiple formats and, you know, try to maximize, you know, attendance as much as possible. But it's definitely not something that is ideal. We'd really, really love to have, like, we can fix it so that then we can have even more fans coming to the stadium. But it's just really the challenges we're facing.
00:03:14
Speaker 3: So I looked ahead at the calendars of other countries.
00:03:16
Speaker 1: And I choose England, Australia, and India because there is a perception that they dominate world cricket. They get what they want, and they give all the other countries, despite us being world test champions, whatever they feel they can spare for us.
00:03:32
Speaker 3: This is how their program looks.
00:03:34
Speaker 1: So England and Australia have six test matches coming up next year. One of them in Australia, it's a centenary event. Occasion, I believe, and then Five Days of the Ashes. Every single one of them has two days of weekend play. India are visiting one of the second-tier countries like us in New Zealand. Two days of weekend play in each of those. India are hosting Australia, five test matches, 10 days of weekend play. In other words, for every test, they seem able to overcome their scheduling. They have very popular domestic programs like us, and we're not jammed up by the SA20 in these months of the year. How come those countries can do it when we can't?
00:04:18
Speaker 2: Well, as I said, it's a situation that we find. So if Australia basically we've got a month or six weeks, to host an Australian tour. And in that six weeks, we needed to play those ODIs as an example. If we didn't have the ODIs, we clearly would have had tests starting over a weekend, as we said. But unfortunately, we had a certain amount of time that we could actually host them before they had to go back to Australia for their other engagement, which really necessitated us basically trying to see how can we actually, you know, schedule these multiple matches faced with a situation that we're really, really facing. I'd love to have Australia, I'd love to have Australia be here for like two months, like it used to happen in Nepal, you know, but unfortunately it is what it is currently that we do have a limited amount of time that these guys can dedicate to tour us and to tour many other countries. You know, you made a perfect example. They'll be doing what, I think five tests against India and England and they'll be there for like two and a half months or something like that. You know, I think the last We haven't been able to, unfortunately, yeah, get to that point where we can actually be able to agree for them to be here for two months.
00:05:31
Speaker 3: Well, but with respect, Mr.
00:05:34
Speaker 1: Moseki, between them staying two months and, for example... starting the Cape town test a day later so that the match concludes on Sunday. Um, and, and it's very, you know, I, it certainly caught my ear when you said, well, you know, they have their engagements and let me put this bluntly. Do you think we're being disrespected? Um, despite the fact that we are world test champions, because I don't see how it could fundamentally affect the Australians to stay. If we'd put to them our business case and if, Test cricket is not healthy all around the world, despite what seems to be their priorities of those three countries playing each other. They must know with the World Test Championship that unless everybody's gaining something, ultimately everyone's going to lose. I mean, were they asked to, did we ask them to make day five a Sunday?
00:06:27
Speaker 2: We knew that they needed to fly out on a Sunday. And they made it very clear because they do have inbound tours. in Australia, I think about five days later. And leaving South Africa to Australia, you can imagine, is quite a long flight. And they needed some time, especially for that player to recover. So they told us that they needed to leave South Africa on Sunday. So I don't want to say that we've been disrespected. I don't want to comment on that.
00:06:54
Speaker 3: I'm happy to say that for you.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I still have a relationship to manage. But we did understand that they needed to fly out on Sunday, Sunday, Monday, because even the whole group couldn't actually get flights for one day. So they had to split their travel plans between Sunday and Monday. So if we played an additional day, then it would have been Monday and Tuesday, you know, which I guess would have compromised their own season back home. Because I know they're hosting, I think they're hosting India or something, not England or something like that. You know, five days after the end of our own tour, you know.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: Those are one-day games, so the squad would change substantially, but... That's Australia and their attitude and I accept that you need to be diplomatic about it. There's another element to this though that I want to get your thoughts on Mr. Moseki and I know this isn't Cricket South Africa's direct responsibility but you must have feedback from unions. A large part of the health of cricket and its ecosystem is the people who take out concessions whether it's to make plates of chips or pizzas or whatever it is. I mean, they must experience a substantial income dip if a test is not scheduled to include two days of weekend play. I mean, is this not a consideration that if the game is to thrive, even the people who don't actually play or coach cricket, but nevertheless contribute to the game, really ought to be getting the maximum out of it because they're putting in as well.
00:08:33
Speaker 2: No, no, no, and you're right. Like, you know, this type of scheduling does impact the whole ecosystem, the whole ecosystem outside the consumer themselves. Remember, ticket revenue is quite an important source of, like, you know, total income back. You know, so it does impact us as Cricket South Africa. I know it definitely impacts our unions as well, because we obviously can't maximize ticket sales as well. But also the people who you spoke about who are selling there. So it is definitely something that is quite unfortunate. And we always try to minimize that impact as much as possible. But unfortunately, it does get to a stage where we basically, despite the best effort, we still have to come up with, like, you know, yeah, you know, something that we have to come up with. But it is definitely something that concerns all of us. But even us, as I said, you know, the top two test countries are currently playing. And for us, the ticketing revenue would have been quite significant had we been able to include weekend games for all these tests, you know. So there's quite a lot of sacrifice for us as well as a federation, you know. So it's not ideal, but as I said, the current environment really forces us to be where we are. You know, the Shazam challenge that all of us have.
00:09:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:09:51
Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure many of our listeners will have some views on that. But thank you for giving us your time today on the line to us from Newlands. CEO of Cricket South Africa, Puletsi Museki. Yeah, I mean, he's not going to say that we're being disrespected by these other countries. So I'm perfectly happy to say that. I cannot believe there'd be any reason why day five at Newlands, which itself is not ideal because traditionally test matches are have been Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. And here's my question for you, because somebody took this up with me when I posted about this on Facebook. You can go and check out some of the reactions. And I said, well, a lot of people won't come anyway. But I'd be very keen to know from you, I mean, if there was more play over the weekend, even against a country that isn't one of our traditional and major rivals like Bangladesh, would you be inclined to go? I know I would absolutely have gone there on Saturday afternoon. And Sunday, you know, and taking people with me who hadn't watched Test cricket before. So I think there's the immediate revenue. There's the pizza or whatever I might have bought while I was there. And there's the opportunity to bring people who don't know the five-day game to come in and see it and enjoy it and maybe bring themselves back next time it's played.
00:11:10
Speaker 3: My thoughts, let's get yours.
