Border Cricket (BCB) CEO Themba Lupuwana revealed yesterday that plans were afoot to give the existing Buffalo Park stadium a facelift and turn it into a 30000 world class cricket stadium.

In recent years, East London has been overlooked when major teams such as Australia tour the country.

Instead, immediate neighbour Port Elizabeth has been getting all the big games.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) CEO, Gerald Majola said if BCB decided to increase the stadium capacity, it might put them in good standing when the CSA allocated its matches.

"Yes, if they increase capacity, it might have some positive effects. However, when we allocate games, we look at many different issues, not only the capacity," Majola said. "We allocate games at the beginning of each year and look at merits of each case. At this point, I can't give any guarantees."

The only cricket stadium in Buffalo City is Buffalo Park, which holds a mere 14000 capacity crowd. It will host Sunday's limited overs cricket match between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Lupuwana said the plan was to increase the stadium's seating capacity, as East London needed a bigger cricket venue to be considered for bigger games.

"The UCB wants to generate maximum revenue from these games. In our case, we can only take 14000 spectators. That means when UCB bring a game to East London, they are thinking of the loss of profit because of the capacity," he said.

"The UCB makes its money from gate-takings and that money is used for development. That is why it is important for them to give matches to bigger venues where maximum profit is almost guaranteed," Lupuwana said.

He added that plans had been submitted to the Buffalo City mayor, Zintle Peter.

"We have scheduled some meetings with the mayor to map the way forward. She has been very supportive and I'm glad we have someone like her as mayor. She has a great vision for this city," Lupuwana said.