Major changes are to be made to the South African 2002-03 domestic and home international cricket schedules, to ensure that the South African players have every opportunity to prepare themselves for the World Cup starting in February 2003.

The home test series against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan is to be reduced to two tests per country. This reduction will make it possible to schedule extra one-day internationals with three being played against Bangladesh and five each against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

The SuperSport Series, starting on September 20 will be reduced to a round-robin series with a final early in November. The limited overs Standard Bank Cup will follow the first class competition completing in January and will include Namibia.

In the Supersport Series, champions KwaZulu-Natal are drawn with Western Province, Griqualand West, Free State, Boland and Border while Northerns, Easterns, Eastern Province, Gauteng and North West make up the second group.

The Standard Bank Cup groups consist of Namibia, Western Province, Boland, Eastern Province, Gauteng and Free State while champions KwaZulu-Natal are up against North West, Griqualand West, Northerns, Easterns and Border.

Schedules and draws are subject to approval by the Board.

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