South Africa announce busy 2016-17 home season

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – South Africa have announced a busy programme of incoming tours for the 2016-17 international season that includes series against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

The Proteas will start their home test season early in a two-match series against New Zealand in August 2016 to be played in Durban and Pretoria.

It will be the first time test matches will be staged in South Africa in August, still officially winter, and follows the successful hosting of New Zealand for one-day internationals and Twenty20 matches in the same month this year.

The tests will be followed by a five-match ODI series against Australia from Sept. 30-Oct. 12, before Sri Lanka arrive for the longest tour of the summer in December that includes three tests, five ODIs and three Twenty20 internationals.

The first five-day match (Dec. 15-19) will be played in Johannesburg, with Port Elizabeth being awarded the Boxing Day test (Dec. 26-30) ahead of Durban and Cape Town keeping its traditional New Year’s encounter (Jan. 2-6, 2017).

Ireland will also make a brief appearance on the calendar when they play a single ODI against South Africa and Australia each between Sept. 25-27.

In between the visits by Australia and Sri Lanka, the Proteas will tour Australia for a test series and also visit New Zealand in February and March, 2017.

The specifics of those two tours are yet to be announced.

New Zealand Tour 2016:

Aug. 19-23: 1st Test, Durban

Aug. 27-31, 2nd Test, Pretoria

Ireland Tour 2016:

Sept. 25: ODI v South Africa, Benoni

Sept. 27: ODI v Australia, Benoni

Australia Tour 2016:

Sept. 30: 1st ODI, Pretoria

Oct. 2: 2nd ODI, Johannesburg

Oct. 5: 3rd ODI, Durban

Oct. 9: 4th ODI, Port Elizabeth

Oct. 12: 5th ODI, Cape Town

Sri Lanka Tour 2016-17:

Dec. 15-19: 1st Test, Johannesburg

Dec. 26-30: 2nd Test, Port Elizabeth

Jan. 2-6: 3rd Test, Cape Town

Jan. 10: 1st Twenty20, Cape Town

Jan. 13: 2nd Twenty20, Pretoria

Jan. 15: 3rd Twenty20, Johannesburg

Jan. 20: 1st ODI, Durban

Jan. 22: 2nd ODI, Port Elizabeth

Jan. 27: 3rd ODI, Cape Town

Jan. 29: 4th ODI, Johannesburg

Feb. 3: 5th ODI, Pretoria

(Reporting by Nick Said; editing by Sudipto Ganguly; nick.said@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: nick.said.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; +27 83 272 2948)