Cricket SA reports R440million loss but remain ” very confident” in hosting 2027 World Cup

Cricket SA President Rihan Richards is confident his organisation can stage a successful World Cup next year, despite reporting a R440 million loss at the conclusion of the 2025/26 CSA Annual General Meeting in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The lack of any major incoming international tours, particularly on the men’s side, with the Proteas only playing three home T20Is last season, had a major impact on the bottom line.

Over R300 million has also been invested into stadium upgrades, with South Africa contributing eight of the 12 host cities in a tournament co-hosted with Zimbabwe and Namibia.

“I’m very comfortable where we find ourselves. People have asked a lot of questions about World Cup 2027, and we have deliberately created a separate company to ensure independence of the process and to make sure that all those things — and does it not complicate the whole CSA structure. So they’re operating quite well,” Richards said.

“We are very confident that the World Cup in 2027 will be a big success.”

Cricket South Africa Financial Results

CSA closed its latest four-year financial cycle with R4.84bn in revenue and R492.9m in net profit.

But FY2026 was a expectedly tough, with revenue falling to R856m and CSA recording a R440.6m loss.

SA20 and stronger broadcast distribution… pic.twitter.com/FP1eydkdr6

— Cash N Sport (@CashNSport) September 26, 2026

CSA Vice-President Dr Mohammed Moosajee concurred with Richards.

“I think from an ICC perspective, both from a governance level at board as well as operation and events, they’re comfortable and satisfied as to where Southern Africa is to host this prestigious and historic event,” Moosajee said.

“So, as things stand, it’s all systems go, and we’re looking forward to a very successful event.”

Chief Executive Pholetsi Moseki stated that CSA is working hard on diversifying its income streams to not be solely reliant on incoming revenue from India tours.

“I think we are fortunate that we do have a very good relationship with India and we constantly work hard to maintain that. But having said that, it’s important that we are really, really focused on diversification of revenue as well,” Moseki said.

“Hence, the last few years, we’ve seen that we’ve basically been going hard at getting more sponsorship. Sponsorship revenue is quite important as part of that diversification journey. But also creating new revenue models is something that we’re really, really focused on.”

💰💥 Who’s winning off the pitch?

We’ve broken down the 2024 revenues of South Africa’s biggest sports bodies — PSL, SAFA, SA Rugby and Cricket South Africa. 📊

Drop your thoughts on what you think about the numbers in the comments 👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/fufd2bXftT

— Cash N Sport (@CashNSport) October 7, 2025

Moseki added that it was critical, because even with Cricket SA hosting major teams such as Australia and England in the 2026/27 cycle, it does not automatically translate into a windfall any longer.

“The changing landscape makes it necessary that we actually look at other ways of bringing in revenue, and it’s something that we really, really are working hard as an organisation, even with our members, to see how we can basically diversify that.

“The two tours that we’re hosting this year, of the so-called two of the big three, Australia and England — in the past, those tours would have generated so much money for us as an organisation that it would have been a very, very profitable year.

“But with the changes that have happened over the last few years, unfortunately, despite hosting both England and Australia in one year, unfortunately, the amount of money that we’re going to be making is not necessarily where it was a number of years ago.

“And it’s a combination of a lot of factors, but the broadcast side has been probably the major, major impact on that. So again, that obviously has necessitated us to see how else to actually diversify revenue, and it’s something that we’re taking very seriously.”