Latest / Drive with John Perlman / Why are the Proteas test matches scheduled outside of weekends? Pholetsi Moseki, CEO of Cricket South Africa

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Why are the Proteas test matches scheduled outside of weekends? Pholetsi Moseki, CEO of Cricket South Africa · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Something that's been puzzling me as we enjoy what is,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: you know, a really quite excellent summer of cricket. Three
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: tests against Australia. We're well into the third of those.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: It's been a brilliant series so far. Two test matches
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: against Bangladesh and then a real money-spinning series, but also
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: one that will be fabulous for cricket lovers. England, I
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: beg your pardon, coming to South Africa for three tests.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: The first of those at the Wanderers. Then at Centurion
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: over Boxing Day and the traditional New Year's test at
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  Speaker 1: Newlands and tickets going very fast for that. I thought
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to go to the test against Bangladesh. And
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: when I go to test cricket, I try to go
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: for more than one day only to discover to my
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  Speaker 1: real surprise. And I have to say unhappiness that there's
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: only one day of the first test against Bangladesh that
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: will be on a Sunday on a weekend. And I thought, well,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: no matter, I'll go in Centurion. Well, that's even worse.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: The test runs from Monday to Friday. And when I
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: look back at the test matches we played against Australia,
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  Speaker 1: second test, which was an absolute cracker down in Tiberia,
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  Speaker 1: only one day of weekend play there again. It was
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  Speaker 1: the Sunday when it started and in Cape Town once again.
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  Speaker 1: Only one day of weekend play. I'm wondering what's going
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: on there. And I thought it would be good to
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  Speaker 1: hear from Cricket South Africa as to what the logic
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  Speaker 1: of the scheduling is. So we join now from Newlands
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  Speaker 1: by the CEO of Cricket South Africa, Pauletti Museki. Welcome
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: and thanks very much for giving us your time.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, hello.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, can you hear me?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I can, you know. Perfect.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: And good afternoon to you. We can hear you perfectly. So, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Musecki, I don't know if you heard my introduction, but...
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  Speaker 1: Test cricket crowds tend to be sparse. It's a form
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  Speaker 1: of the game that is in need of as much
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  Speaker 1: love as we can give it. And as I've pointed out,
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  Speaker 1: for what will turn out to be three tests in
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  Speaker 1: a row, there's only one day of weekend play. And
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  Speaker 1: for the fourth of those games, the second test against Bangladesh,
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  Speaker 1: there's no days of weekend cricket at all.
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  Speaker 3: What's the thinking behind that?
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  Speaker 2: John, thank you for having me and good afternoon to
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  Speaker 2: our listeners. It's really the scheduling challenges that we basically
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  Speaker 2: are faced with as cricket, you know. Ideally, we would
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  Speaker 2: love to have all our tests to actually start on
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  Speaker 2: a Thursday or Friday latest, but unfortunately, it's a very
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  Speaker 2: congested calendar, you know, and that has really has necessitated
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  Speaker 2: us to be quite creative on how we basically go
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  Speaker 2: about our scheduling. You know, you know, during the days Australia,
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  Speaker 2: as an example, would have come to South Africa about
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  Speaker 2: two months between our months, but those days are really
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  Speaker 2: long gone, you know. So you normally have about a
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: month to six weeks where you basically have to squeeze
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  Speaker 2: in multiple formats and, you know, try to maximize, you know,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: attendance as much as possible. But it's definitely not something
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  Speaker 2: that is ideal. We'd really, really love to have, like,
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  Speaker 2: we can fix it so that then we can have
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  Speaker 2: even more fans coming to the stadium. But it's just
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  Speaker 2: really the challenges we're facing.
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  Speaker 3: So I looked ahead at the calendars of other countries.
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  Speaker 1: And I choose England, Australia, and India because there is
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  Speaker 1: a perception that they dominate world cricket. They get what
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  Speaker 1: they want, and they give all the other countries, despite
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  Speaker 1: us being world test champions, whatever they feel they can
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  Speaker 1: spare for us.
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  Speaker 3: This is how their program looks.
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  Speaker 1: So England and Australia have six test matches coming up
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  Speaker 1: next year. One of them in Australia, it's a centenary event. Occasion,
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  Speaker 1: I believe, and then Five Days of the Ashes. Every
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  Speaker 1: single one of them has two days of weekend play.
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  Speaker 1: India are visiting one of the second-tier countries like us
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  Speaker 1: in New Zealand. Two days of weekend play in each
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  Speaker 1: of those. India are hosting Australia, five test matches, 10
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  Speaker 1: days of weekend play. In other words, for every test,
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  Speaker 1: they seem able to overcome their scheduling. They have very
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  Speaker 1: popular domestic programs like us, and we're not jammed up
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  Speaker 1: by the SA20 in these months of the year. How
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  Speaker 1: come those countries can do it when we can't?
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  Speaker 2: Well, as I said, it's a situation that we find.
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  Speaker 2: So if Australia basically we've got a month or six weeks,
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  Speaker 2: to host an Australian tour. And in that six weeks,
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  Speaker 2: we needed to play those ODIs as an example. If
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  Speaker 2: we didn't have the ODIs, we clearly would have had
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  Speaker 2: tests starting over a weekend, as we said. But unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: we had a certain amount of time that we could
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  Speaker 2: actually host them before they had to go back to
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  Speaker 2: Australia for their other engagement, which really necessitated us basically
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  Speaker 2: trying to see how can we actually, you know, schedule
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  Speaker 2: these multiple matches faced with a situation that we're really,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: really facing. I'd love to have Australia, I'd love to
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  Speaker 2: have Australia be here for like two months, like it
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: used to happen in Nepal, you know, but unfortunately it
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  Speaker 2: is what it is currently that we do have a
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  Speaker 2: limited amount of time that these guys can dedicate to
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  Speaker 2: tour us and to tour many other countries. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you made a perfect example. They'll be doing what, I
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  Speaker 2: think five tests against India and England and they'll be
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  Speaker 2: there for like two and a half months or something
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  Speaker 2: like that. You know, I think the last We haven't
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  Speaker 2: been able to, unfortunately, yeah, get to that point where
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  Speaker 2: we can actually be able to agree for them to
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  Speaker 2: be here for two months.
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  Speaker 3: Well, but with respect, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Moseki, between them staying two months and, for example... starting
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  Speaker 1: the Cape town test a day later so that the
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  Speaker 1: match concludes on Sunday. Um, and, and it's very, you know, I,
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  Speaker 1: it certainly caught my ear when you said, well, you know,
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  Speaker 1: they have their engagements and let me put this bluntly.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think we're being disrespected? Um, despite the fact
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  Speaker 1: that we are world test champions, because I don't see
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  Speaker 1: how it could fundamentally affect the Australians to stay. If
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  Speaker 1: we'd put to them our business case and if, Test
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  Speaker 1: cricket is not healthy all around the world, despite what
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  Speaker 1: seems to be their priorities of those three countries playing
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  Speaker 1: each other. They must know with the World Test Championship
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  Speaker 1: that unless everybody's gaining something, ultimately everyone's going to lose.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, were they asked to, did we ask them
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  Speaker 1: to make day five a Sunday?
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  Speaker 2: We knew that they needed to fly out on a Sunday.
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  Speaker 2: And they made it very clear because they do have
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  Speaker 2: inbound tours. in Australia, I think about five days later.
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  Speaker 2: And leaving South Africa to Australia, you can imagine, is
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  Speaker 2: quite a long flight. And they needed some time, especially
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: for that player to recover. So they told us that
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  Speaker 2: they needed to leave South Africa on Sunday. So I
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  Speaker 2: don't want to say that we've been disrespected. I don't
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  Speaker 2: want to comment on that.
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  Speaker 3: I'm happy to say that for you.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I still have a relationship to manage. But
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  Speaker 2: we did understand that they needed to fly out on Sunday, Sunday, Monday,
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  Speaker 2: because even the whole group couldn't actually get flights for
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  Speaker 2: one day. So they had to split their travel plans
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  Speaker 2: between Sunday and Monday. So if we played an additional day,
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  Speaker 2: then it would have been Monday and Tuesday, you know,
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  Speaker 2: which I guess would have compromised their own season back home.
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  Speaker 2: Because I know they're hosting, I think they're hosting India
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  Speaker 2: or something, not England or something like that. You know,
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  Speaker 2: five days after the end of our own tour, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Those are one-day games, so the squad would change substantially, but...
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: That's Australia and their attitude and I accept that you
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: need to be diplomatic about it. There's another element to
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  Speaker 1: this though that I want to get your thoughts on Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Moseki and I know this isn't Cricket South Africa's direct
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  Speaker 1: responsibility but you must have feedback from unions. A large
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  Speaker 1: part of the health of cricket and its ecosystem is
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  Speaker 1: the people who take out concessions whether it's to make
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  Speaker 1: plates of chips or pizzas or whatever it is. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: they must experience a substantial income dip if a test
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  Speaker 1: is not scheduled to include two days of weekend play.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, is this not a consideration that if the
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  Speaker 1: game is to thrive, even the people who don't actually
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  Speaker 1: play or coach cricket, but nevertheless contribute to the game,
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  Speaker 1: really ought to be getting the maximum out of it
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  Speaker 1: because they're putting in as well.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, no, and you're right. Like, you know, this
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  Speaker 2: type of scheduling does impact the whole ecosystem, the whole
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  Speaker 2: ecosystem outside the consumer themselves. Remember, ticket revenue is quite
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  Speaker 2: an important source of, like, you know, total income back.
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  Speaker 2: You know, so it does impact us as Cricket South Africa.
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  Speaker 2: I know it definitely impacts our unions as well, because
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  Speaker 2: we obviously can't maximize ticket sales as well. But also
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  Speaker 2: the people who you spoke about who are selling there.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: So it is definitely something that is quite unfortunate. And
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  Speaker 2: we always try to minimize that impact as much as possible.
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  Speaker 2: But unfortunately, it does get to a stage where we basically,
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  Speaker 2: despite the best effort, we still have to come up with, like,
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  Speaker 2: you know, yeah, you know, something that we have to
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  Speaker 2: come up with. But it is definitely something that concerns
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  Speaker 2: all of us. But even us, as I said, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the top two test countries are currently playing. And for us,
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  Speaker 2: the ticketing revenue would have been quite significant had we
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  Speaker 2: been able to include weekend games for all these tests,
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  Speaker 2: you know. So there's quite a lot of sacrifice for
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  Speaker 2: us as well as a federation, you know. So it's
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  Speaker 2: not ideal, but as I said, the current environment really
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  Speaker 2: forces us to be where we are. You know, the
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Shazam challenge that all of us have.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure many of our listeners will have some
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  Speaker 1: views on that. But thank you for giving us your
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  Speaker 1: time today on the line to us from Newlands. CEO
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: of Cricket South Africa, Puletsi Museki. Yeah, I mean, he's
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  Speaker 1: not going to say that we're being disrespected by these
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: other countries. So I'm perfectly happy to say that. I
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  Speaker 1: cannot believe there'd be any reason why day five at Newlands,
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  Speaker 1: which itself is not ideal because traditionally test matches are
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: have been Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. And here's my
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  Speaker 1: question for you, because somebody took this up with me
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: when I posted about this on Facebook. You can go
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and check out some of the reactions. And I said, well,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people won't come anyway. But I'd be
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: very keen to know from you, I mean, if there
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: was more play over the weekend, even against a country
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  Speaker 1: that isn't one of our traditional and major rivals like Bangladesh,
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  Speaker 1: would you be inclined to go? I know I would
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  Speaker 1: absolutely have gone there on Saturday afternoon. And Sunday, you know,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: and taking people with me who hadn't watched Test cricket before.
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  Speaker 1: So I think there's the immediate revenue. There's the pizza
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  Speaker 1: or whatever I might have bought while I was there.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: And there's the opportunity to bring people who don't know
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  Speaker 1: the five-day game to come in and see it and
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: enjoy it and maybe bring themselves back next time it's played.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: My thoughts, let's get yours.