The Cricket South Africa (CSA) governing body made a profit of R238 million ($13.7 million) during the last financial year, down substantially from its 2023-24 figure.
The 2024-25 profit came following a home cricket season which saw the national men's side play games against India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan – of those series, the India games were the only ones to make a profit overall.
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In 2023-24, by way of contrast, CSA profits came to the equivalent of $45.6 million, with that home season also seeing India tour (for a test series, as opposed to limited overs fixtures in 2024-25), as well as Australia.
However, for the three years before that, losses had ranged between $6.8 million and $12.7 million.
The main factors of revenue for CSA during the last financial year were media rights fees, sponsorship revenue, and distributed funds from the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Media rights revenue came to $40 million, while the ICC distributed $21 million, and sponsorship income landed at $7.2 million.
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By GlobalDataTotal expenses came to around $74 million; meanwhile, with CSA maintaining a reserve of $82 million, the 2024-25 financial report has said that this figure will "provide a stable foundation for the future."
Meanwhile, revenue from the SA20 Twenty20 franchise league – the South African competition featuring six teams owned by private investors – was not itemised in the financial report.
However, CSA has said that the third edition of that tournament (it started in 2023), which ran across January and early February, generated the equivalent of $103 million in "direct spend," while also contributing the equivalent of $305 million to South Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
All this has been revealed ahead of a 2025-26 season in which South Africa's men's side will play only five international fixtures at home, all T20s against the West Indies – meaning a profit for the next financial year would appear, at this point, to be unlikely.
The men's side are the holders of the ICC's World Test Championship trophy for the 2023-25 cycle, having beaten Australia in the final of that competition, in England, earlier this year.
In terms of commercial activity, 2024-25 saw the addition of multiple new sponsors to the CSA stable.
In February, for example, the governing body unveiled Italian sportswear manufacturer Macron as its new technical partner, in a five-year deal that GlobalData Sport has valued at $9 million in total.
Then, in April, a significant multi-year deal with Japanese car brand Suzuki was announced, through which Suzuki has been designated as the official men’s and women’s one-day international partner, as well as the CSA’s official vehicle partner.
Suzuki became the first headline sponsor for the men’s team since Standard Bank ended its sponsorship tie-up in April 2020 due to a wide range of internal governance issues within CSA (many of which have since been resolved).
