South African Domestic Season 2026/27

[SeamUp]

Knights were promoted back to Division One with KZNI Tuskers relegated back to Division Two.

Division One Teams sees a return to 4 coastal & 4 inland.

There are changes to the structure as well. The First-Class competition will be split into 2 groups of 4. You play the other 3 teams in your group home & away + 4 cross-group games. Returns our First-Class season to 10 games. Much needed. Division Two is now 3-Day FC games.


The T20 competition now includes both Division One & Division Two teams together.

Division One Teams
Western Province
Boland
Warriors (Eastern Province)
KZN Dolphins
Free State Knights
North West Dragons
Central Gauteng Lions
Northerns Titans




Division Two teams
Garden Route Badgers (SWD)
Eastern Cape Linyathi (Border)
KZN Inland Tuskers
Northern Cape Heat (Griquas)
Easterns Storm
Mpumalanga Rhinos
Limpopo Impalas

 

[chris.hinton]

10 matches is much better. I assume the 3 day matches will still get 1st class status

 

[GRAB]

26/27 Squads (Div 1 only stats)
Western Province

Boland

EP

 

[GRAB]

KZN Coastal

FS

NW

 

[SeamUp]

10 matches is much better. I assume the 3 day matches will still get 1st class status

Yeah, its what it was for so long. I think that's minimum for young players in particular getting opportunities in the longer formats and spending time in the middle and learning. 10 games is enough time for a player to get dropped and someone to come in. Almost feel like with 7 games you want to back them and then there is a game or 2 left to give a new opportunity.

Yeah, the 3-Day games will be First-Class except for the games including Mpumalanga and Limpopo if memory serves me correct. Neither team have First-Class status.

 

[SeamUp]

Brilliant stuff as ever @GRAB

Was looking into HP/SA U19 XIs for Western Province, Lions and Titans.

Dolphins chose to let (Blake Simpson, Aryan Gopalan, Josh van Biljon & Ismaeel Omar) + slightly more senior & contracted Slade van Staden go to Division 2 to get opportunity. Outside of what they announced maybe Ross Coetzee (2005) and Jean Upman (2005) for Warriors. But the other three have depth.



Sibiya (Lions) maybe shouldn't be in that sort of XI yet but there isn't exactly many others screaming out.

Conrad Mouton (Titans) is probably one seamer too many so you could add a batsman from Tuks like David Teeger/Josh Jordaan or Ben Hockley/Reuben van Zyl who were SA Schools last year.

Was watching clips of Cameron Fraser who was taking wickets for WP Colts. He looks like he has gas.

My Division Two players to monitor.

1. Ronan Hermann (2003) Easterns
2. Slade van Staden (2003) SWD
3. Beni Hansen (2006) SWD
4. GJ Maree (2004) Northern Cape
5. Dewan Marais (2004) Easterns
6. Blake Simpson (2005) Northern Cape
7. Steve Stolk (2006) Northern Cape
8. Aryan Gopalan (2004) Easterns
9. Merrick Brett (2001) Easterns
10. Liam Alder (2003) SWD
11. Martin Khumalo (2005) Easterns
12. Liyema Waqu (2004) Tuskers

Outside of van Staden and Hansen I think a lot of these batsman will make their names in white-ball if they progress so I think that is the benefit of Div 2 and not so much the FC focus.

Some fun SA U19s and young talent in the HPs Muhammed Bulbulia (Tuskers), Ismaeel Omar (Tuskers), Josh van Biljon (Tuskers) , Riley Miller (Border). Maybe even Parth Patel (Tuskers).

 

[GRAB]

C. Gauteng

N. Gauteng

 

[GRAB]

Div 2 (stats are still for Div 1 tho)
Garden Route

Border

KZN Inland

 

[GRAB]

Northern Cape
tk
Eastern Gauteng

Limpopo
tk
Mpumalanga

 

[SeamUp]

Four-Day First-Class that means everything and you could play Proteas.

Main 5 Provinces & a combo of the rest (NW, FS, Boland, Div 2) + SA U19 team (including overage players and given more options).

 

[SeamUp]

Some footage of next layer talent thanks to WSX cricket. There are a few. Stacks of talent around.

Tiaan van Vuuren (Knights)

Oliver Whitehead (Western Province)

Gavin Kaplan

Matthew Boast

Dewan Marais (Easterns)

 

[SeamUp]

Lehan Botha (Boland)

Caleb Seleka (NW Dragons)

Liam Alder (Garden Route Badgers)

Blake Simpson (Northern Cape)

George van Heerden (Knights)

 

[SeamUp]

CJ King (Warriors)

JP King (Warriors)

Tristan Luus (Dolphins)

Jono Bird (Knights)

Matthew De Villiers (Warriors)

 

[SeamUp]

Meeka-eel Prince (NW Dragons)

Merrick Brett (Easterns)

Rubin Hermann (NW Dragons)

Codi Yusuf (Lions)

Wesley Bedja (Warriors)

 

[SeamUp]

Beni Hansen (Garden Route Badgers)

Mitchell van Buuren (Lions)

Aphiwe Mnyanda (Titans)

Ronan Herrmann (Easterns)

Gideon Peters (Warriors)

 

[SeamUp]

Stats don't lie. There will be the odd outlier. But you you balance that with the eye test.

These are active SA seamers performances in Division One in South Africa. Hardus Viljoen, Migael Pretorius and Anrich Nortje are in red as in effect they aren't contracted and aren't playing FC cricket.

Bowling strength is what determines the strength of a FC system for me. The different challenges and higher and longer challenges the better for batsmen.

Green and gold indicate test capped and lighter green means they were in the last SA A squad if not capped.

I added balls per game indicating his importance to his team.



This is then the Wiaan Mulder v competition. Plus Up-and-comers.



This is SA seamers in County Cricket.



You can't see Baartman, C Bosch, Burger, Ngidi & M Jansen playing County Championship because of their white-ball commitments.

But if I were Lutho Sipamla, Gerald Coetzee, Tiaan van Vuuren, Matthew Boast, Tristan Luus, Kwena Maphaka & Nqobani Mokoena I'm looking for it big time.


Spinners next.

 

[GRAB]

It still baffles me how much Corbin Bosch has struggled to make an impact in domestic 4-day cricket. It does feel like Centurion is the worst home venue for seamers atm (used to be St Georges)... Same with Dudgeon (his div 2 numbers and County numbers are solid). I've never got why Mungroo is still picked for 4-day - he's very slow these days, and doesn't seem to be able to contain either...

 

[SeamUp]

Spinners

There is such a massive gap from those guys that you have to hope to mould a hand-full that I showed at the bottom. Covers wrist-spin, ROS and SLA too.

Batsmen's ability to play spin has got worse from when Harmer/Maharaj started? Less patience & harder hands.

 

[SeamUp]

It still baffles me how much Corbin Bosch has struggled to make an impact in domestic 4-day cricket. It does feel like Centurion is the worst home venue for seamers atm (used to be St Georges)... Same with Dudgeon (his div 2 numbers and County numbers are solid). I've never got why Mungroo is still picked for 4-day - he's very slow these days, and doesn't seem to be able to contain either...

There of course will be outliers. I think Corbin Bosch and to a lesser extent Senuran Muthusamy are those. Maybe its the modern attitude pf to a little bit of both mentality.

I've long thought Durban is the toughest to bowl seam on. When the sun is out and those small boundaries and it is gun barrel straight there who would want to be seamer. Especially on a warm humid day there that you get often.

Centurion at least has bounce and then inconsistent bounce when you hit the pitch hard but the run-rate is definitely naturally higher.

 

[GRAB]

There of course will be outliers. I think Corbin Bosch and to a lesser extent Senuran Muthusamy are those. Maybe its the modern attitude pf to a little bit of both mentality.

I've long thought Durban is the toughest to bowl seam on. When the sun is out and those small boundaries and it is gun barrel straight there who would want to be seamer. Especially on a warm humid day there that you get often.

Centurion at least has bounce and then inconsistent bounce when you hit the pitch hard but the run-rate is definitely naturally higher.

Seems to go in cycles. 90s era Kingsmead was often a snakepit. Remember that game where we thought we could roll the Indians and Prasad's medium pacers absolutely ran through our side, especially had Kirsten's number...