West Indies, South Africa T20 series likely to be reduced due to World Cup clash

South Africa may be forced to shorten their only men’s international home series this summer – against West Indies – for both teams to get to the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka on time.

South Africa are scheduled to host West Indies for five T20Is between January 27 and February 6, but as reported by ESPNcricinfo last week, the T20 World Cup is set to be played between February 7 and March 8.

On August 28, the ICC sent participating teams a Member Information Pack, with information regarding warm-up matches. The document, seen by ESPNcricinfo, states that the ICC’s support period – the time in which teams are expected to arrive in the host countries and play non-obligatory warm-up games – starts on January 31.

That has moved up from February 3, while CSA had drawn up their home fixtures with the understanding that South Africa would have enough time to travel to the T20 World Cup.

It is not mandatory for countries to spend the entire support period in the host venue, but the ICC asked participating countries to list by September 5 how many warm-up matches they want to play, with options ranging between none to a maximum of two. Only if a country opts for two matches, will the support period become one week prior to the tournament opener.

CSA are currently in discussions with CWI to see when West Indies want to arrive in the subcontinent and how many matches they want to play there. If teams opt for no warm-up games, the mandatory support period is four days prior to the first match on February 7.

If a team opts for one warm-up then the support period will five to six days prior to the tournament opener.

The warm-up information is significant only because it allows the ICC to confirm an arrival date for each team.

Even if West Indies do not want to play any T20 World Cup warm-up matches, CSA will still have to cull at least two of the five T20Is; the last two games are on February 3 and 6. The fixtures cannot be played any earlier with the SA20 ending on January 25.

CSA is currently deciding which venues should host the matches against West Indies – at present, the venues are likely to be Paarl, Newlands, Buffalo Park in East London, Centurion and Johannesburg. (ESPNcricinfo)