A Joburger asks his friend, who moved to Cape Town a decade earlier and is celebrating his 10th anniversary in the Cape, whether he now feels fully Capetonian: “Well, I’ve stopped greeting strangers, I’ve whittled my friends down from 20 to just three or four and I’ve stopped arriving on time for social gatherings, so I’m getting there.”Apparently, a few cricket-loving South Africans thought that a bit too much fuss was made of the ticket fiasco for the New Year Test against England at Newlands. Apparently, some non-Capetonians thought Capetonians were sounding a little too precious about being asked to pay R13,000-R15,000 for a R400 ticket.For the benefit of readers who’ve been living on a submarine for the past week, Cricket South Africa and its “travel partner” have bundled general access tickets with vastly inflated hotel rooms and transport, which is a baffling concept for fans who live down the road in Rondebosch. They cannot buy just the ticket.This bundling may be tolerable for a retired doctor from Dorking keen to escape the winter and experience one of cricket’s iconic fixtures in the Cape sun, but even the wealthy English are harumphing at what they call the “Pom Tax”. “We get fleeced wherever we go in the world these days. They tore strips off us in Australia for the Ashes, and now the South Africans are doing it, too,” said one of the original members of the Barmy Army, due to come on his third tour to South Africa.The thing is, they keep paying it. Presumably because they can. The Barmy Army is offering its members a special package deal incorporating the Boxing Day Test at Centurion, a short “safari” and the Newlands Test for £5,950 per person, sharing. That’s R135,000. Most “cricket people” I’ve met at the New Year Test since 1993 couldn’t afford to spend that in a lifetime of watching cricket.There are certainly many high-rollers — I know three England “supporters” who have hired a corporate suite for the Test at twice the cost of a Barmy Army package and didn’t blink an eye. Two of them have rented properties in Constantia for an even more eye-watering fee. There are many ways to spend lots of money to watch the cricket on January 3, and they should be encouraged and welcomed. Their restaurant habits might push prices up for the rest of us, but the local economy appreciates their largesse.But the Test match is not about them. Or “just” about them. It is also about the father from Grassy Park bringing his sons to Newlands like his father before him. It’s about the families for whom the tradition of a New Year Test at Newlands goes back generations and for whom R2,000 for four tickets and a few samoosas each is a lot of money. Finally, a shout-out for the SA A team, which beat their counterparts, the England Lions, by eight wickets in the first of two four-day games at Arundel Castle last week. The decreasing gravitas attached to domestic first-class cricket means the A team has become the major platform for local players to press their case for the highest honours, and there were several outstanding individual performances.Jason Smith (4/15) is exactly the sort of seamer who thrives on an English pitch with “nip”, and Nqobani Mokoena’s match analysis of 6/125 in just his fifth first-class match surely means a Test career beckons, perhaps even with a debut this summer given the attrition rate among fast bowlers playing eight Tests in a little over two months.But Marques Ackerman was jaw-dropping. The 30-year-old from the Dolphins has become the go-to captain of the “A” for the last few years without, for some reason, ever appearing to be in line for a full debut. South Africa “A” scored 331 in their first innings against a strong attack in helpful conditions, of which the left-hander made 173 from just 136 balls with 25 fours and five sixes. The next highest score was 30 extras. The door to selection, you might think, had been kicked off its hinges.