India to Play T20 Match in FIFA World Cup Stadium

Johannesburg: Come January 9, 2011 and Indian cricket team will play a Twenty20 International against South Africa at the FIFA World Cup stadium in Durban.

The Moses Mabhida Stadium, where Germany pounded Australia 4-0 in a World Cup match on Sunday, will host the only Twenty20 International match of the series, Cricket South Africa announced.

In another significant development, CSA decided the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg will not host any Test match when the Indians arrive here in December for a full series, also featuring three Tests and five ODIs.

Instead of Wanderers, Centurion will host the first Test from December 16, while Kingsmead, Durban (Dec 26-30) and Newlands, Cape Town (Jan 2-6) will host the two other matches.

Kingsmead also hosts the first ODI on January 9, followed by matches in New Wanderers Stadium (Jan 15), Newlands in Cape Town (Jan 18), St George's Park in Port Elizabeth (Jan 21) and SuperSport Park in Centurion (Jan 23).

It will be the first time in almost two decades that there will be no Test match at Wanderers during the cricket season.

CSA chief executive Gerald Majola, however, dismissed speculation that South Africa's premier cricket venue was being penalised for threatening to act against CSA last year in a spat over the IPL contract with the local cricket authority.

CSA had at that time threatened to remove all international games from the Wanderers as the stadium owner, Gauteng Cricket Board, had challenged the terms of CSA's contract with the IPL when the second edition of the Twenty20 league took place here.

The dispute was resolved only after the Sports Minister intervened.

"It's purely because the first Test will be played just before Christmas in the holiday season that a decision was taken that Centurion would be a better place for it than the Wanderers, as it will attract more spectators," Majola told the Afrikaans daily 'Beeld'

"If the Test was played around the middle of January, as we would have liked, it would have taken place at the Wanderers, but India was not prepared to stretch the tour out for so long," Majola added.

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