{"id":924711,"date":"2026-10-11T22:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T22:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924711\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T22:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T22:26:13","slug":"cricket-world-calls-for-ban-as-aussies-could-be-dudded-out-of-victory-in-south-africa-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924711\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket world calls for ban as Aussies could be dudded out of victory in South Africa Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cricket<\/a> fans and former players are lashing out over ’embarrassing’ scenes in Durban for the first Test between Australia and South Africa<\/a>. And a former Proteas player has gone so far as to suggest it should result in a ban.<\/p>\n

Australia went to stumps on day three at 0-33, leading South Africa by 139 runs in the second innings. The tourists are in a commanding position to win the first Test, but they’ve been completely dudded by the conditions in Durban.<\/p>\n

For the third-straight day, play was ended early due to poor light and dozens of overs were lost. After 24.4 overs were lost on day one it was another 15.2 that went down the drain on day three.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon, play was called off when another 21.2 overs were due to be bowled. The sun sets around 6pm in Durban at this time of year, and although each day’s play starts at 9.30am there’s still been over 60 overs lost due to bad light.<\/p>\n

Officials have been reluctant to start play earlier in the morning and instead add 15 minutes to each of the first two sessions. But the bad light threatens to ruin Australia’s chances of victory as they’ll likely run out of time to bowl South Africa out.<\/p>\n

\"Travis<\/p>\n

Travis Head bats in poor light at the end of day three between Australia and South Africa. (Photo by Marco Longari \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Calls for Durban to be banned from hosting Tests<\/p>\n

It’s one of a number of issues that have plagued the Test in Durban. The crowds have been shockingly low<\/a>, even though two of the days were played on Saturday and Sunday. Fans have pointed out the cost of tickets and transportation as major issues, while there’s also been protests in Durban that might have turned people off attending in person.<\/p>\n

Former South Africa player Paul Harris sensationally declared on social media: “Ban cricket in Durban.” Another person wrote: “Durban should stop hosting Test cricket if this is going to be the turnout for a marquee series. Very disappointing to see.”<\/p>\n

While a third added: “We can excuse the crowd yesterday because it was a working day but quite embarrassing for the world champions to be playing in front of so many empty seats on a Saturday. Still early or should we consider removing Durban from the Test schedule?”<\/p>\n

Crowds for Test matches in Durban have always been low, while supporters tend to flock to games in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. “There’s nothing we can do about it,” Nathan Lyon said at the end of day three. “Whether it’s cloud or smog, it is playing a role.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cricket fans and former players are lashing out over ’embarrassing’ scenes in Durban for the first Test between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-924711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}