South Africa T20 league may face court stay

Cricket South Africa announced the relaunch of their T20 league as owners of their aborted Global League geared up for a court battle. The Global League was called off in October 2017, three weeks before it was due to start.

Cricket South Africa yesterday had started a recruitment process for a relaunched Twenty20 league, which will run from November 9 until December 16.

Speaking to Gulf News, Dubai-based Ajay Sethi, who owns the Nelson Mandela Bay Stars Port Elizabeth team in the T20 Global League, said: “We [owners] are going to court to defend our perpetual rights and our damages.”

Foreign and local players have been invited to apply to play in the SA T20 League. This is being planned to be staged an year after the aborted Global T20 League, which cost the South African governing body an estimated $14 million, including compensation paid to 144 contracted players. The new league will be played by six teams, with venues to be decided after a bidding process.

Sethi said the owners will approach the court in South Africa. “We will not only request for a stay of this newly planned league and also ask for damages,” added Sethi.

Cricket South Africa has stated that each team will have 16 players, with a minimum of three and a maximum of four overseas players. Incidentally, South Africans who have signed Kolpak contracts in England, making them ineligible to play for South Africa, are classed as overseas players. “We had paid money and we were given perpetual rights and even players’ draft was completed,” said Sethi.