No Home Tests for World Test Champions, Pink ODI Replaced

The Cricket South Africa has come up with a big change in the pattern of the home season. This has left many confused as well as surprised with many lashing out at the governing body for their scheduling.

Over the years, South Africa has produced some of the best cricketers in the world and the upcoming season promises some excitement as well. With some world-class tournaments coming up, the Proteas will be hoping to win big.

Why South Africa Will Not Play Home Test This Year?

South Africa home season this year will see no Test matches being played and this marks the first instance in a while when this will happen. Despite them being the current World Test champions, the home Tests in South Africa will not happen this year. The reason behind this is the South African Cricket Board giving preference to SA20 2025-26 over Test cricket.

The ICC T20 World Cup 2026 being hosted in February-March have made Cricket South Africa make massive changes to their schedule. Due to the ICC tournament, they had to postpone the SA20, which is underway currently in South Africa.

With the SA20 2025-26 being pushed back to December-January, this meant that Cricket South Africa (CSA) had to take the big call of hosting no Test matches this time around. Not only this, there will be no ODIs as well for South Africa at home this time around.

The reason for that has been the same and this means that for the first time ever in history, the traditional pink ODI will not be played. But Cricket South Africa have come up with a backup plan for that.

Why South Africa Will Not Host Pink ODI?

To make up for not hosting the Traditional South Africa Pink ODI, Cricket South Africa will now host a pink T20I. It will be played against the West Indies Cricket Team during the T20I series just ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026.

The T20I series will begin on January 27 at Boland Park in Paarl followed by the second T20I at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Thursday, January 29. The last match will be played at Johannesburg’s DP World Wanderers Stadium on January 31.

The last T20I will be the Pink T20I. This has been the tradition in South Africa, where they play an important role in raising awareness and cash for breast cancer efforts. It will be a historic moment as the first ever pink T20I will be played.

It will be an opportunity for both teams to get their balance and combination right before the T20 World Cup 2026, where they will face the best cricket teams in the world. Since it will be the last series for teams before the event, both teams would be keen to make most of it and head into the tournament on a high.