After tickets for the Proteas' News Year's Test against England in Cape Town were snapped up within minutes, causing a local uproar about ticket allocations, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has now paradoxically confirmed that tickets were sold out. But the governing body says 'additional' tickets are set to be released at a later stage.

Over the past two days, CSA has faced mounting backlash after tickets for the highly anticipated New Year's Test between the Proteas and England at Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town sold out within minutes of it being opened to the public.

On Monday, 18 May, CSA had advertised 9.30am as the official release time of tickets for the 2026/27 home summer fixtures.

This included the headline Test series between South Africa (SA) and England - which is also England's first red-ball series in SA since 2019, with the New Year's Test, from 3-7 January 2027, clearly being the highest in demand.

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CSA posted on social media that the Newlands Test had sold out - before later deleting the message.

According to the Tuesday, 19 May statement, additional tickets are expected to become available "once final pitch allocation requirements have been confirmed", although the organisation did not specify how many seats were still being withheld from the initial public sale.

Speculation

The whole sequence of events has fuelled widespread speculation that the tickets had already sold out before being released for public sale.

The Proteas, who are the reigning World Test Championship victors, will host Australia, Bangladesh and England in...