The 2016-17 cricket season is on the horizon and with the release of the fixtures for the new season on Tuesday teams can begin preparing for another busy year.
The Africa Cup T20, scheduled for September, had already been confirmed as the first tournament on the cricket calendar and now the fixtures for all the other tournaments have been released.
East London's premier side Border will open their three-day season on October 20 against North West at Buffalo Park and they will then play their first Provincial One-Day clash on October 23 against the same opposition.
“We are starting a bit later in the month than other teams, which I am quite happy about as it gives us some extra time to prepare for the longer formats after we take part in the Africa Cup,” said Border coach Frank Plaatjes.
“Playing at home is also a plus for us, the guys will hope to use that homeground advantage and have a good start to the season.
“It is also nice that we can use the extra time to get a bit of insight into our opposition, with North West playing their first game on the opening weekend and we can see how they do and hopefully learn something ahead of our clash.”
The T20 competition that used to also take place has now fallen away as all the provinces compete in the Africa Cup.
Border endured a difficult past season as they lost a few senior players, with a number of youngsters then coming through, and expectations are now higher as a more balanced and experienced team will be in action.
“We have a number of senior players such as Martin Walters and Darryl Brown, which is great, and the young guys who came through last season have now been a part of the team and played a number of games for us, so I feel we are much better prepared for this season and am excited to see how we do,” said Plaatjes.
For the franchises there is one major change as the Momentum One-Day Cup will now take place in one block of fixtures from mid-February to the end of March, whereas in previous years it had been split.
The Ram Slam T20 Challenge will take place as normal from early November to the middle of December while the Sunfoil Series will be split into two segments of five rounds.
The first half segment will kick off the franchise season from the beginning of October to the first week of November with the second half taking place in January and early February.
As always, the fixtures have been tailored to suit the Proteas requirements.
Eastern Cape's premier team the Warriors will be in Sunfoil Series action on the first weekend when they play the Dolphins at Buffalo Park in East London from Thursday October 6 to Sunday October 9.
The Warriors’ first Ram Slam match will then be on Sunday November 13 against the Dolphins in Durban and their first Momentum One-Day Cup clash will take place on Sunday February 19 against the Lions in Johannesburg.
It’s home start for Border
The Africa Cup T20, scheduled for September, had already been confirmed as the first tournament on the cricket calendar and now the fixtures for all the other tournaments have been released.
East London's premier side Border will open their three-day season on October 20 against North West at Buffalo Park and they will then play their first Provincial One-Day clash on October 23 against the same opposition.
“We are starting a bit later in the month than other teams, which I am quite happy about as it gives us some extra time to prepare for the longer formats after we take part in the Africa Cup,” said Border coach Frank Plaatjes.
“Playing at home is also a plus for us, the guys will hope to use that homeground advantage and have a good start to the season.
“It is also nice that we can use the extra time to get a bit of insight into our opposition, with North West playing their first game on the opening weekend and we can see how they do and hopefully learn something ahead of our clash.”
The T20 competition that used to also take place has now fallen away as all the provinces compete in the Africa Cup.
Border endured a difficult past season as they lost a few senior players, with a number of youngsters then coming through, and expectations are now higher as a more balanced and experienced team will be in action.
“We have a number of senior players such as Martin Walters and Darryl Brown, which is great, and the young guys who came through last season have now been a part of the team and played a number of games for us, so I feel we are much better prepared for this season and am excited to see how we do,” said Plaatjes.
For the franchises there is one major change as the Momentum One-Day Cup will now take place in one block of fixtures from mid-February to the end of March, whereas in previous years it had been split.
The Ram Slam T20 Challenge will take place as normal from early November to the middle of December while the Sunfoil Series will be split into two segments of five rounds.
The first half segment will kick off the franchise season from the beginning of October to the first week of November with the second half taking place in January and early February.
As always, the fixtures have been tailored to suit the Proteas requirements.
Eastern Cape's premier team the Warriors will be in Sunfoil Series action on the first weekend when they play the Dolphins at Buffalo Park in East London from Thursday October 6 to Sunday October 9.
The Warriors’ first Ram Slam match will then be on Sunday November 13 against the Dolphins in Durban and their first Momentum One-Day Cup clash will take place on Sunday February 19 against the Lions in Johannesburg.
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