CSA, Lorgat and the T20 Global League’s timeline of disarray

February 2017

CRICKET South Africa unveil plans for SA’s first franchise T20 tournament to the ICC in Dubai.

March 8, 2017

CSA says it receives submissions for franchise ownership from over 150 applicants in 10 countries. “We are very encouraged by the extent of the interest shown by potential team owners from SA and the rest of the world. We will now progress to the next stage where we will receive proposals to a tender from potential owners and then narrow down our search to a shortlist and then finally decide the eight team owners.” – Haroon Lorgat, CSA chief executive.

April 7, 2017

CSA invites players to register interest in participating in the T20 Global League.

“There will be eight franchise teams participating in the #T20 Global Destination League and each will be allowed a maximum of four foreign defined players in their 17-man squad. The interest in our new league has been simply amazing and we are confident of staging one of the best T20 professional leagues in the world.” – Lorgat.

April 13, 2017

Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga, Brendon McCullum, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Kieron Pollard and Jason Roy are unveiled as “international marquee” players for the event.

April 21, 2017

Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir are named the South African “marquee players” for the tournament.

April 28, 2017

Closing date for potential owners to submit bids. CSA received more than 150 expressions of interest from potential owners.

June 1, 2017

Lorgat confirms no broadcast deal, critical to the competition’s financial success, has been signed. “We are in negotiating with our South African host broadcaster currently, I’m confident we will close that shortly. We are talking to SuperSport... those are sensitive negotiations that we are currently engaged in. I must be honest, this is a commercial venture. We would look to see who would bid the price that we need to achieve in order make the model work.” – Lorgat.

June 19, 2017

One day after the end of the ICC Champions Trophy, CSA announce eight team owners at an event in London, attended by Lorgat, a host of former players and the SA marquee players.

September 28, 2017

Lorgat and CSA “part ways.”

October 3, 2017

“It’s been very challenging, we basically had to start negotiations (regarding the broadcast deal for the T20 Global League) afresh. I’ve also been in talks with our other key stakeholders to jump on board to support this, while providing the franchise owners with reassurances that we are still intent on providing delivery of the competition.” – interim CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe.

October 6, 2017

CSA announce that it will incur losses of R342 million related to the T20 Global League. “Initially we were looking at a total net revenue of $32million (R438 million) as far as TV and central sponsorship are concerned. At the moment it will be in the 20s. As CSA, we have decided to absorb some of the losses that our members would have incurred, but we’re doing so because when we look at our numbers, we’re pretty confident that we can help them regain them in the following year. CSA and team owners will still suffer losses. Hopefully, depending on how well we negotiate with the broadcasters, the team owners will break even in year three. Our model is pretty watertight, it’s now just a matter of making sure that we deliver operationally.” – Moroe

October 10, 2017

CSA announce that the T20 Global League will be postponed until November 2018. – Stuart Hess