South Africa to stage new Twenty20 tournament

Cricket South Africa (CSA) will stage a new Twenty20 tournament and not the T20 Global League which they said would be held this year end. The new tournament will feature their country’s top players and international stars and is yet to be named. But CSA acting chief executive Thabang Moroe said it would be “the biggest in the history of South African domestic cricket”.

CSA has entered into a deal with South African television company SuperSport, who will be part owners.

Except that the tournament will be held in November-December this year, the CSA did not give further details.

Incidentally, CSA was supposed to stage the T20 Global League this year end as that tournament was postponed soon after a fall out between their CEO Haroon Lorgat and board.

The reason stated for the postponement then was that a television deal did not materialise as expected.

The T20 Global League was to be a city-based franchise tournament, with foreign owners. Dubai-based Ajay Sethi, is the owner of the Nelson Mandela Bay Stars team while India’s Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan owned Cape Town team. The Johannesburg team was owned by GMR Group, the owners of the Delhi Daredevils team in the Indian Premier League.

Speaking to Gulf News, Sethi said: “We are yet to receive any intimation from Cricket South Africa regarding this tournament. I welcome SuperSport coming on board as we have been waiting for a media deal.”

According to reports from South Africa, the new league will not have private ownership of the franchises.