. . . capacity cut for England Test
● Western Province Cricket Association CE Nabeal Dien said the construction site at Newlands will cut the capacity for the New Year’s Test against England by 2,000.
The ground was in danger of losing the Test after mother body Cricket SA put the WPCA under administration two weeks ago.
CSA and WPCA met this week to iron out issues regarding the state of the construction project and WPCA’s financial and administrative health.
“We now have to rejig our disaster management plans, which we’ve done so far and we’re still busy engaging the City of Cape Town in that regard,” Dien said.
“Our capacity will be reduced because of the loss of the snake pit grass bank, which holds an average of about 2,000.
“We’re not delayed in terms of the construction.”
The construction in question, the Newlands Cricket Ground (NCG) office precinct, is four blocks of buildings which cost
R750m-R800m.
The first phase is set to be completed by 2021 and there’s two tenants on board with Varsity College and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
The project is co-funded by Sanlam (51%) and the WPCA (49%).
Acting head of Sanlam properties, Ralph Wellhoner, said WPCA’s administration didn’t impair the project, but they were aware of CSA’s stepping in.
Meet their respective commitments
“This does not impact the commercial viability of the project. Sanlam is committed to this investment proposition on a commercial basis and will not be involved in any of the cricket aspects.
“Though Sanlam has secured step-in rights should the co-investors be unable to meet their respective commitments, we look forward to completing the project together with the WPCA and CSA as co-investors,” Wellhoner said.
“We were fully appraised of the administration and we were comfortable with the manner in which they (WPCA) were going to meet their contribution. Sanlam Properties will make contributions as required of its 51% stake depending on the progress and requirements of the project.”
CSA’s chief commercial officer Kugandrie Govender couldn’t comment on WPCA’s financial standing as she said they were waiting on the administrator, Andre Odendaal, to get back to them.
Govender said, though, it was critical for Newlands to have cricket readiness because of the domestic season.
“We can’t comment because we have to wait for the administrator to do his job and get the results,” Govender said.
“The evaluation was exactly about the ground, but operations will continue. It’s not just about getting the ground ready in time for the Test, but there’s the Mzansi Super League that happens before that.