Dark days: For the first time in 38 years, Free State cricket not part of SA's top flight

Gloom has descended over Bloemfontein as the reality sets in that, for this first time in 38 years, Free State won't be playing in the top flight of South African provincial cricket.

Despite concluding their season and 4-Day Series campaign on a positive note with a comprehensive nine-wicket win over the Boland Rocks earlier this week, the Knights still only managed to finish sixth on the overall log.

That position is not high enough for them to avoid relegation to division two for next season.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) had instituted a two-season promotion-relegation log in 2021/22 - it was the first campaign where the domestic system reverted back to 15 provincial teams split among the two divisions - as a buffer to teams to get their structures in order for annual promotion-relegation, which starts in 2023/24.

Ironically, the Knights never finished last in any of the six division one tournaments they participated in, but never performed well enough in any of them to avoid being the worst performing team over two years.

It's a far cry from the glory days in the mid-1990s, when Proteas stars like Hansie Cronje and Allan Donald made them the premier one-day outfit in the country, as well as the first five years of franchise cricket in 2004, when Corrie van Zyl guided them to six titles.

Relegation comes at a time when Free State cricket is in an extremely vulnerable position.

It has already gone into a conditional agreement with a local property developer to sell the Mangaung Oval to alleviate cash flow problems and faces the prospect of its pipeline - it boasts pre-eminent cricket schools like Grey College and St Andrews - having no incentive to keep local players in the region because of a lack of top-class competition.

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