SuperSport Park in crowd pickle over numbers for Bangladesh series

Northerns Cricket Union chief executive officer Jacques Faul said the current regulations with regards to stadium attendances has left them in a tricky spot for the two ODIs SuperSport Park is going to host against Bangladesh.

SuperSport Park will host the first and the third ODIs against Bangladesh, both of which will be day/night games on 18 and 23 March.

Under the current provisions of the Disaster Management Act, only 2 000 fans will be allowed into the ground.

On their Twitter timeline, the union announced that tickets for the two ODIs will go on sale on Monday.

Tickets?? for the ODI series between the Proteas???? and Bangladesh???? go on sale Monday the 28th February, on TicketPro.Tickets are limited, so be sure to get your tickets early.#BePartOfIt #SAvBAN pic.twitter.com/nAS4Xk485c

The ground also hosted the sole Netherlands ODI late last year and the turnout for that game wasn't great, even though the growing Omicron Covid-19 variant threat had a lot more to do with that.

Faul said this presents a challenge for the union as international matches attract more sponsorship attention as compared to domestic matches.

Cricket South Africa's domestic provincial competitions have made use of the crowd provision, but it’s only in the ongoing Provincial T20 Cup at St George's Park in Gqeberha where the fans have truly taken to the stadium.

"As things stand, we're looking at 1 500, but at some stage, we hope we can get more in," Faul told Sport24.

"The thing with domestic games is that there isn't an uptick from sponsors. However, it's a different story when it comes to internationals and they have to be accommodated.

"There's a fair bit of uncertainty on how this matter is going to be handled. We do require further direction from