CSA names new T20 league, franchises

THE announcement on Monday that South Africa has got with the T20 programme that has captured the imagination of cricket fans around the world was met with mixed reaction.

While the various cricket boards around the country that will host the eight franchises are optimistic that the T20 Global League will inject renewed interest and boost the coffers, many South Africans took to Facebook to raise their objections.

The main gripe seems to be that most of the franchises have been bought by overseas megamillionaires. Some objectors even intimated that this would lead to a legal laundering of money out of the country.

Jan Swanepoel wrote: “Pathetic, CSA sets up a global league in SA and the big money flows out of the country.”

Michael Zoast Jennings wrote: “What a load of bollocks. Who will seriously be interested in a cobbled-together bunch of cricket mercenaries who have no actual loyalty to or connection with their ‘home’ team/ stadium/area.”

However, Renaldo Noland retorted: “Don’t watch if you are going to be negative about it.”

The eight franchise bases, owners and marquee players are:

Cape Town/ Shah Rukh Khan/ JP Duminy; Johannesburg/ GMR Group/ Kagiso Rabada;

Benoni/ Javed Afridi/ Quinton de Kock;

Pretoria/ Osman Osman/ AB de Villiers;

Port Elizabeth/ Ajay Sethi/ Imran Tahir;

Stellenbosch/ Mustaq Brey/ Faf du Plessis;

Bloemfontein/ Sushil Kumar/ David Millar;

Durban/ Fawad Rana/ Hashim Amla.

Only two of the owners are South African – Osman Osman and Mustaq Brey.

However, fans of Bollywood would have no objection to mega star Shah Rukh Khan visiting our shores to support his team which is rumoured to be called Cape Town Knights.

ANA reports that KZN Cricket’s interim chief executive Muhammad Seedat has urged the Durban-based public to get behind the Kingsmead-based franchise.

Seedat said: “I am confident that the KZN cricket-loving supporters will adopt the new franchise, ensuring that the matches that are played in Durban are vibrant and memorable.”