All South Africa's leading players will have an opportunity to play against the 1999/2000 tourists. For the first time on a tour in the new age of South African cricket, all 11 provinces are accommodated, although four of the five four-day provincial matches will be against combined teams.
In what some may consider to be a realistic division of the talent available in South Africa, Western Province and Boland will combine their resources for the first four-day match of the tour at Newlands, starting on November 5.
The same pattern will be repeated by Free State/Griqualand West and Northerns/Gauteng before the first Test at the Wanderers, from November 25-29.
KwaZulu Natal are the only major province to be given their own four-day match against the tourists, with Eastern Province and Border pooling their talents between the second and third Tests.
Despite being upgraded to Supersport Series status for next season, Easterns and North-West will have to be satisfied with individual limited-overs matches against England. Easterns will play the tourists immediately after the pipe-opener against Nicky Oppenheimer's team at Randjesfontein.
The match against North-West will be under floodlights at a new R14-million stadium in Potchefstroom on January 20, providing a transition from the Tests to the limited-overs tournament.
United Cricket Board of South Africa managing director Ali Bacher said the combined provinces idea would enable Test centres to stage more international cricket, with Newlands, Centurion and Kingsmead staging four-day matches as well as a Test against England, while Springbok Park in Bloemfontein will be the venue of a four-day match after hosting its first Test, against Zimbabwe in October.
The Eastern Province/Border game will be played in East London, but St George's Park in Port Elizabeth has been allocated a three-day SA Invitation XI fixture in addition to a Test.
For the first time since the Mandela Trophy second-leg final against Pakistan in 1994/95, the Wanderers will be the venue for an international limited-overs final. Both Kingsmead and Newlands have staged finals in intervening seasons.
The triangular series will start with a day-night match between South Africa and Zimbabwe at the Wanderers on January 21 and end with the final on February 9. Bacher said finance had been the main consideration. The Wanderers is the biggest cricket ground in South Africa and the match against Sri Lanka last season grossed R3-million.
Whereas the bulk of the takings for pool matches is retained by the home union, most of the income from a final is distributed among all provinces.
The season will start with home-and-away Tests against Zimbabwe, with Bloemfontein staging a Test for the first time. The only previous Test between South Africa and Zimbabwe was in Harare in the 1995/96 season.
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