Cricket SA has to rebuild friendships for new T20 league
SuperSport and Cricket SA are working at a furious pace to build the country’s new T20 league, which is set to run from mid-November to mid-December.
The broadcaster will be investing hundreds of millions of rand in the tournament and the country’s players to realise the most important goals the abandoned Global League had set.
SuperSport is in partnership with Cricket SA in the new competition and will be sharing the risk on a vast financial investment. And it is prepared to wait, in the red, for as long as necessary to make the new league sustainable and ultimately profitable. That took five years in the case of Australia’s now hugely successful Big Bash. It will take at least as long here.
But first some fires have to be extinguished and friendships rebuilt.
“Bloemfontein has a lot of potential — it was our first choice of city and we look forward to being based here,” said Sushil Kumar a year ago.
“Our partnership with the city extends beyond the T20 Global League in terms of development of cricket at grassroots level, and also in terms of tourism to the beautiful Free State city,” said Kumar.
“We have a 12-month and 10-year plan in place.”
Bloem had done well when the Hong Kong-based businessman bought the Bloem City Blazers franchise. He understood the importance of relationships in sporting success and was widely credited with the success of the Hong Kong T20 Blitz in which he also owns a franchise.
Twelve months later, following the collapse of the Global League, things are rather different.
“Deposits and expenses have still not been refunded … there has been no official communique regarding the new league to any of the team owners,” Kumar said last week.
Kumar flew to Johannesburg from Hong Kong on May 20 to meet Cricket SA but said that no members of the board or executive were available to see him. Instead, he was afforded a meeting with members of the audit committee on the morning of the May 22, the day he was due to return home.
“We had the meeting with the audit department in Cricket SA’s office as scheduled and clarified matters with regard to the reimbursement of expenses. However, no one on the executive or the board would speak with us.
“Only one owner has got back his [$250,000] deposit, the rest are still waiting. None of the subsequent media releases with regard to the new partnership with SuperSport etc have been shared with the owners,” said a disgruntled Kumar.
It would appear there is a good reason for that. Cricket SA and SuperSport are likely to follow the example of the Big Bash by keeping all aspects of the tournament in-house, including ownership of the teams. So no Cape Town Knight Riders or Durban Qalandars — and no Bloem City Blazers, unless Kumar is happy to hand the name back to Cricket SA.
The new league is likely to revert to six teams, which will increase the challenge of distinguishing it from the Ram Slam, but it will be dollar-based, which will enable it to attract some of the world’s best talent, at least those players who have not already signed up with the overlapping Bangladesh Premier League.
There is a strong and credible rumour that Australia’s disgraced former captain and vice-captain, Steve Smith and David Warner, respectively, will be approached to play in the inaugural league as part of a contingent of three overseas players per team. That may still feel a little unpalatable now, but cricket lovers will be more in the mood to extend an olive branch in November. Most of England’s top T20 players will also be available.
Whoever from Cricket SA is in charge of Global League franchise relationships cannot afford to keep prevaricating. There may well be many legal issues to sort through and no doubt the issue of their expense claims is equally complicated, but the level of ill-feeling among some of the world’s wealthiest cricket lovers doesn’t do anyone any favours.