Cricket South Africa (CSA) is staring at an awkward diary clash that could cut the men’s home summer to just three nights of international cricket. South Africa are due to host West Indies for five T20s from 27 January to 6 February, yet the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka is now pencilled in for 7 February to 8 March. That overlap, small on paper, carries a long tail of travelling days and ICC obligations.
Under tournament regulations the “support period” – the window in which squads must be available in the host country and may play optional warm-ups – opens on 31 January. The ICC notes that the lead-in shrinks to “four days prior to the first match” if teams decline practice games, but even that takes us back to 3 February. In other words the final two scheduled fixtures, East London on 3 February and Johannesburg on 6 February, are already inside the grey zone.
CSA and Cricket West Indies (CWI) have begun talking. The simplest fix is chopping two games, leaving a three-match set that would finish on 1 February. Moving the series forward isn’t realistic – the SA20 final is locked in for 25 January and the bulk of both squads will be involved.
Venue allocation remains on the whiteboard. Paarl and Newlands are near-certainties; Centurion is keen, Buffalo Park is on every administrator’s wish-list because the Eastern Cape seldom gets men’s internationals, and the Wanderers expects at least one night under lights. Lose two games and that tidy five-ground plan no longer adds up.
There is also the broader context. CSA deliberately left the top-tier calendar light to give curators space to install drop-in pitches ahead of the 2027 ODI World Cup. A trimmed West Indies visit fits that narrative, if only by accident. Domestic administrators shrug, international fans groan.
England and Sri Lanka have slipped through a similar gap, their own T20I series running 30 January-3 February. The difference? They will already be in one of the host nations, no long-haul flight required.
Looking further out, South Africa’s 2025-26 home slate is anything but quiet – three Tests each against Australia and England, plus two more against Pakistan and one against Bangladesh. For now, though, the men’s side could be reduced to a single, quickfire series in familiar coloured kit, and that feels, well, odd.
A line in the ICC handbook reads: “Teams may request zero, one or two warm-up fixtures; the support period will adjust accordingly.” It looks plain enough, but those few words may end up wiping 40 percent of South Africa’s entire men’s international summer.
