Cricket SA Snubs Local Fans For Overseas Deep Pockets In Newlands Ticket Blunder

With a big international cricket summer looming large, Cricket South Africa has snubbed local fans, prioritising travel companies for the New Year’s Test match against England at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town.

Local Fans Snubbed

When Cricket South Africa confirmed the tours of Australia, Bangladesh and England for the 2026/27 home international summer, many cricket fans and families around the country were filled with excitement.

After all, the cricket-loving South African public had no inbound men’s Test cricket during the 2025/26 season, which meant families used to filling stadiums around the country for Test cricket could not continue doing so.

With England set to tour between December and January for three Tests, including the Boxing Day Test at Centurion and New Year’s Test at Newlands, many were patiently waiting for the tickets to finally go on sale so they could book their family holidays for the festive season, which goes hand in hand with the cricket season.

However, despite announcing that the tickets would finally go live on Monday, 18 May, Cricket South Africa snubbed the local fans.

Shortly after the tickets went live, Cricket SA’s website already showed that Days one to four for the New Year’s Test were already sold out.

SportsBoom.co.za has learned that a significantly large number of tickets were pre-sold to travel companies, a move that prompted many local fans to take to social media to voice their frustration.

Spending days at the cricket is a culture in South Africa, especially during the Boxing Day and New Year’s Test, which take place when a majority of the workforce and scholars are on year-end holidays.

What is interesting is that Cricket SA announced their own travel company in December 2025, the SA Cricket Travel, which they launched in partnership with Tourvest Destination Management.

A few months later, local fans will most likely resort to watching the Test match on their TV screens, while a repeat of the 2020 New Year’s Test against England will most likely take place where the stadium will be filled with England fans, making the encounter virtually an away fixture.

Another interesting feat was how the Barmy Army, the England cricket team’s supporters, announced that people could book their trips to South Africa for the New Year’s Test on their platform, and this happened in the midst of the uproar from the South African public.

For many, watching the Proteas play Test cricket carries sentimental value, especially given that it will be the first time the Proteas play Test cricket on home soil after becoming the World Test Champions last year.

Ticket Prices Justified

While some criticised Cricket SA for almost doubling the ticket costs for the England Tests as compared to the prices of the past, there is some logic to it.

After all, captain Temba Bavuma’s team are the current ICC World Test Champions, making it a no-brainer for the ticket prices to increase as compared to the ticket prices in the past.

In the rugby space as well, the Springboks ticket prices have been on a continuous price hike since the team won back-to-back rugby World Cups.

It only makes sense that the prices for the Proteas Test matches would also increase.

SportsBoom approached Cricket South Africa for a comment, and at the time of publishing the article, no comment was received.