Owners still committed to CSA’s T20GL

THE BLOEM CITY BLAZERS have expressed their commitment to the staging of the T20 Global League in 2018 despite the fallout of the maiden edition’s postponement this week.

City Blazers owner Sushil Kumar, a Hong Kong-based businessman, believed that although his franchise is currently experiencing “mixed feelings”, the postponement could be the best thing for the T20 Global League going forward.

“On one hand, there is a sense of disappointment. We, along with our fans, were looking forward to the tournament and our preparations were going ahead at full steam and taking promising shape,” Kumar said in a statement yesterday.

“On the other hand, there is also a sense of relief. We will now have time to have clarity on the broadcast and sponsorship rights (for both the league and the teams), which have been unconfirmed. With less than a month to go before the tournament, the only concerns were related to the broadcast footprint and league sponsorship, which in turn affected the team sponsorship efforts.”

Kumur stressed that at no point will he be turning his back on the T20 Global League and his new “second home’’ Bloemfontein.

“We remain committed to the T20 Global League just as we were three months ago. We will be working towards the first edition scheduled for November 2018 with renewed vigour and enthusiasm,” he stated.

“It also goes without saying that our commitment towards development at grassroots and schools level, transformation through performance and all investments towards the Mangaung Municipality are intact. We will continue to channel our strategy and efforts to bringing Bloemfontein and the Free State on the world cricketing map. South Africa has become our home, we are not going anywhere.”

Meanwhile, Stuart Hess reports that Pretoria Mavericks franchise owner Hiren Bhanu, says CSA was left with no other option but to postpone the T20 Global League for a year.

“With the model we had in mind, we didn’t get the revenue streams per our expectations,” Bhanu said yesterday.

Bhanu confirmed that his consortium remains committed to the tournament and that the postponement will be better for CSA allowing it to iron out some critical details, while most importantly getting a proper broadcasting deal on the table.

“Cricket SA needed to a take a grip of the situation and needed time to pick up the bits and pieces which have been left behind after the previous CEO’s departure,” Bhanu said.

Bhanu painted a picture of an organisation that was rushing to pull all the organisational logistics of the event together while not being cognisant of the everyday demands that such a big venture entails.

“The model for the tournament needs to be revamped,” he said.