South African cricket is turning to a new infrastructure solution as an expanding schedule places unprecedented demands on the country’s major grounds, developing exchangeable pitches that can be rotated in and out of squares without taking established surfaces out of service.
The Exchangeable Pitch System (EPS) is being introduced across major venues as Cricket South Africa (CSA) looks for additional capacity to accommodate international, domestic and SA20 fixtures. Unlike conventional drop-in pitches, the South African model grows surfaces at the venues themselves before moving them from the outfield into specially prepared positions on the square.
Why South Africa needs more pitches
The central problem is not simply the total amount of cricket being staged, but how heavily a limited number of pitches are being used.
Pitch Consultant and Project 2027 Cricket South Africa Team Member Hilbert Smit told The Indian Express: “In recent years, the capacity of each venue has increased because of the number of cricket that is being played. So by rotating these pitches, we can keep them fresh. Around 80% of all the games are played on the middle 1-4 pitches because the broadcasters prefer it that way, and if we move further aside, the boundary sizes get compromised. Since we can’t replace all the pitches ahead of the World Cup, we felt this is the best way to keep them fresh.”
According to The Indian Express, five of South Africa’s eight venues scheduled to stage matches at the 2027 Men’s ODI World Cup are preparing to implement EPS. The tournament, which South Africa will co-host with Zimbabwe and Namibia, gives the project a major development milestone without requiring the new surfaces to be used during the event itself.
Smit explained: “The two centre pitches that we usually use for Test and international cricket remain locked where they are. We are not touching them. Suppose there are four pitches in the middle; 2 and 3 are left untouched. 1 & 4 will have EPS. So instead of four pitches sharing the load, we will have 8 pitches sharing the load. Since they are constructed in a tray, they will hold more moisture, and that alone is sufficient to say it would be the same as the original pitches.”
How South Africa’s system differs from drop-ins
The exchangeable surfaces are cultivated in steel trays on the outfield. The defining difference lies not only in where they are grown, but in how South Africa intends to move them between their development areas and the main square.
Pitch Consultant Evan Flint told The Indian Express: “So they are constructed in a tray, which is similar to the drop-in. The difference with the drop-in is obviously that the drop-in is picked up with a crane, lifted out of the ground and taken out to the nursery. Ours are done on a hovercraft system. So there are pontoons in the pits. The pit position is where the tray sits in. At the end of that tournament, you could then remove that wicket and exchange it with another wicket that’s been on the boundary.”
The pitches themselves weigh approximately 32 tonnes. During transportation, an industrial fan creates an air cushion beneath the tray that reduces its effective load to around two or three tonnes before the surface is lowered into position using air cushions.
South Africa developed this approach because the specialist transporting vehicles associated with conventional drop-in systems were neither practical for the available space at its stadiums nor financially attractive. Cricket South Africa Pitch Consultant Smit told Cricinfo: “It would have cost us, on a thumb-suck, but ten times what it’s costing us now and there’s just no space for the vehicle to come into our stadiums. So we’ve got a unique transportation system based on air.”
The process could become simpler as the system develops. Instead of the truck used during the early stages, one prospective method would involve attaching a winch to a roller to move the tray.
Preserving the character of individual grounds
Creating greater pitch capacity does not mean CSA wants its major grounds to produce identical surfaces. Each venue can retain its own choices of soil, grass and preparation rather than working from a standardised national formula.
Flint said: “It’s generally accepted that white ball pitches across the world are made to favour the bat. They are all very, very similar. But what we have done is that each ground has used its own soil and its own grass and its own construction methods. So yeah, there will be variances or differences purely in that. So that should keep that kind of natural characteristics for each venue. But then again, I argue, what are the characteristics of a white ball pitch?”
The grounds use their usual bulli soil and Cynodon grasses, with individual venues able to select varieties suited to their respective conditions. The basic process of establishing the turf remains comparable to building a conventional new pitch, including the management of moisture and fertility.
Where EPS changes that process is the environment around the developing surface. Because the pitch grows within a confined tray rather than interacting with adjoining turf and soil, its development can be controlled more closely.
Wanderers offers the first evidence from competition
The Wanderers is the most advanced venue in the programme and remains the only ground to have staged a professional match on an exchangeable surface.
Its first seeds were planted in 2024, before the pitch was subsequently used for a one-day challenge match between the Lions and Dolphins. The surface ultimately received a 7.5 out of 10 rating from the captains and match officials, according to Cricinfo.
The match itself provided different tests for the surface. The Dolphins reached 123 without loss before Nqaba Peter took 5 for 38, while the Lions later completed a chase of 242 behind Zubayr Hamza’s unbeaten 119 and Reeza Hendricks’ 73.
Flint told Cricinfo: “There was the usual kind of Wanderers bounce.”
The Wanderers could now become the first venue to use an exchangeable pitch in the SA20. Elsewhere, domestic cricket is expected to provide the principal testing environment before the system is considered for higher-profile use.
Rollout will move at different speeds
Newlands, Kingsmead, Boland Park and St George’s Park are among the grounds progressing with exchangeable surfaces, but their timelines will not necessarily be identical. SuperSport Park is set to wait until after the 2027 World Cup before putting its EPS surface into use.
Newlands is further along. Its exchangeable pitch is considered to be in sufficiently good condition that it could be used before Christmas.
The time required to develop a reliable surface remains central to CSA’s approach. A pitch rebuilt directly within an existing square would ordinarily be given at least 18 months before use. Growing one independently on the outfield could potentially accelerate development because activity elsewhere on the square does not interfere with the process.
World Cup will not force an early rollout
The 2027 World Cup provides a major reference point for the project, but CSA is not treating the tournament as a deadline that overrides testing.
Smit told The Indian Express: “It is sensitive. The concept will work 100%, but we don’t want to rush. We are not ready to use it for a Test match or for the World Cup. But we are using the World Cup as a vehicle to get used to this system because that’s the best way to stop the pitches from deteriorating.”
The Wanderers is ahead of the other venues and could potentially be the exception when the World Cup arrives. Most of the new surfaces, however, still need to establish themselves through domestic use before being considered for matches at that level.
That measured approach also reflects lessons drawn from the 2024 T20 World Cup in the United States, where the New York pitches encountered problems following a compressed preparation period. Flint said: “With New York, it showed us that you can have the best but the one thing you can’t buy is time.”
Rotating surfaces could expand seasonal capacity
The operational value of EPS becomes clearer once a pitch has completed its development. After being moved into the square, an exchangeable surface needs approximately five to six days in position before it is ready for play and can then accommodate around five to eight days of high-level cricket during the summer.
The model allows another surface to recover away from the square while the installed pitch is being used. In an SA20 scenario outlined by Flint, a venue could begin the tournament with a fresh pitch capable of staging three or four matches. Once that surface had carried its share of the competition, it could be removed and replaced by a rehabilitated pitch from the edge of the field for a subsequent international or televised domestic fixture.
That rotation would prevent a venue from repeatedly returning to the same worn surface and could effectively provide another fresh pitch during the middle of a season.
Ground staff are also becoming substantially faster at making the exchange. The first installation at the Wanderers required 11 days, but the process has since been completed in less than a day, with Kingsmead also achieving a sub-one-day installation.
A home-grown response to a heavier calendar
The project is ultimately designed around the amount of cricket South Africa’s grounds are being asked to accommodate across the men’s and women’s games. Cricinfo Senior Writer Firdose Moonda said in a Cricinfo Instagram video: “There’s too much cricket, we always hear them say, and there’s 78 days of international action across men’s and women’s matches in South Africa this summer. So cricket South Africa have come up with the solution to handle the load it’s called the exchangeable pitch system, and essentially what they’re doing is growing pitches at each of the six SA20 host venues. So that’s the wanderers, Boland Park, Superstore Park, Kingsmead, Newlands, and ST George’s Park.”
Those six participating venues are the Wanderers, Boland Park, SuperSport Park, Kingsmead, Newlands and St George’s Park. By cultivating additional surfaces from the same venue-specific soil and grass used at the grounds themselves, CSA is seeking additional capacity without replacing its permanent squares with conventional drop-ins.
Moonda added: “So instead of five to eight days of high-level cricket a year, you can get 10 to 16 days, which means two test matches at some venues, which means more white ball games actually and that’s the purpose of this exchangeable pitch system. Careful not to confuse this with A Drop-IN pitch. It’s not a pitch that’s created elsewhere and then brought in. It’s actually grown at the venue, and it is a uniquely South African solution to the problem of cricketing overload”
For now, the emphasis remains on giving the surfaces enough time and domestic match exposure to establish themselves. As South Africa moves towards the 2027 World Cup, the next stage will be determining how successfully each venue can integrate EPS into its regular workload while preserving the permanent pitches the system was created to protect.
