New cricket season has a hole in it
THE 2018-19 domestic season once again has a schedule with a gaping hole in the middle of it, with local franchises, like the rest of the populace having to wait until the middle of September to know if they must prepare for a T20 competition.
Whether that is the long ago publicised, new version of the T20 Global League or the local, what for now is being called T20 Challenge, is a mystery. Cricket South Africa officials remain optimistic it will be a competition with some overseas stars in it, although last Friday’s lengthy statement from the federation made that probability appear to be “50-50.”
The domestic season will kick off officially in the last week of September with the first match of four rounds of the now sponsor-less four-day competition – no longer the Sunfoil Series – pitting the reigning champions the Titans against the Dolphins at SuperSport Park. That portion of the four-day tournament will run until the end of October, before the competition goes on a hiatus until December.
The period in between is supposed to be filled with CSA’s new T20 tournament, but as yet there are no teams nor any schedule for that event. CSA was shifting through bids, received from its provincial affiliates for potential host venues for the new six-team competition. The federation has given itself until mid-September to arrive at “a final outcome,” as far as that tournament is concerned.
According to the schedule published yesterday the T20 Challenge will be played in April with the final set to take place on 5 May 2019, which would be the end of the season.
However CSA may repeat the schedule change they performed last season when the T20 Global League was cancelled and move the T20 Challenge to fill the hole in November and the first half of December.
No official communication has been made to the franchises about whether to change their plans as far as preparing for the T20 Challenge – which would feature the current six franchises; the Knights, Titans, Lions, Warriors, Dolphins and Cape Cobras – but one franchise official said it would not be a big problem for them to do so, because the mid-September deadline would leave coaches with sufficient time to prepare their players. The T20 Challenge would be taking place at the same time as the IPL which is due to start on March 29.
The One-Day Cup will be played in February and March, running concurrently with the one-day international series with Sri Lanka. CSA has hinted that the Proteas who are bound for the World Cup could play in the latter stages of the One-Day Cup – including the playoffs – as part of preparation for the ICC tournament.
“The semi-finals and final will take place immediately after the conclusion of the white-ball part of our home series against Sri Lanka to assist in the preparation for the World Cup,” Moroe said.
The national men’s team have a busy summer ahead of them which is set to start at the end of September with a three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe. The Proteas will play three ODIs in Australia in November following which there will be in-coming series across all three formats against Pakistan and then Sri Lanka.