’Super 14’ T20 cricket for southern hemisphere
South Africa’s march into cricket’s big financial league will take another step forward with the launch next season of a southern hemisphere version of India’s hugely successful Twenty20 Premier League.
In a joint deal with Cricket Australia, an eight-team league is planned with four franchise teams based in each country.
Players from India and New Zealand will join what should be another big crowd pleaser — and money-spinner.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive Gerald Majola said reports of a Tri-Nations-type competition were off the mark.
He said he had been asked by a cricket website whether there were talks between South Africa and Australia about forming a new competition. “I told them yes, but said I couldn’t give any details at this stage. They jumped to the wrong conclusion.”
Instead, he said, if a rugby analogy was to be used, what is planned is more in the nature of a Super 14 competition, although restricted to eight teams.
Majola said the Indian model would be followed, with bids invited for owning franchises in major cities. Players from SA, Australia, India and New Zealand would be signed into a pool with franchise owners then bidding for the players.
“The Indian board have agreed to make their players available, in the same way we have made ours available for their IPL. This will help as far as the big money is concerned,” said Majola.
Majola said finding suitable dates would be difficult. But he said the new league would provide opportunities for a wider pool of South African players, not just those in the national squad.
CSA and Cricket Australia will be 50-50 partners in the new venture, which should attract significant sponsorship and television revenue.
South Africa have been quick to capitalise on the potential of T20 cricket, staging the first world T20 tournament last year, and becoming 20% partners in the Champions League, the first version of which will be played in India from December 3 to 10. Television rights for the Champions League were sold to ESPN Star recently for 900-million over 10 years.
India own 50% of the Champions League and Australia 30%.
The first domestic cricketers to benefit from the expansion of T20 cricket into an international product will be the players of the Titans, who won the Standard Bank Pro20 competition last year, and the Dolphins, who were runners-up. Both qualified for the eight-team Champions League and a tilt at prize money of 6-million.
In the meantime, South African players who signed for the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League remain effectively out in the cold in their own country. The second season of the ICL starts on Friday and runs until November 16.
None of the South African ICL players — Dale Benkenstein, Andrew Hall, Lance Klusener, Nicky Boje, Justin Kemp, Johan van der Wath and Nantie Hayward — have been signed by local franchises.
Majola explained that the players were not banned. “It’s about right of association. It’s up to the franchises.”
A significant deterrent for franchises, apart from the fact that the ICL clashes directly with the first half of the SuperSport Series, is that the rules of the Champions League exclude ICL players from participating.
The loss of the ICL players is a blow to the standard of domestic cricket as most have performed solidly in English county cricket — led by Benkenstein, who captained Durham to their first county championship last week.
Benkenstein, who played in 23 one-day internationals for SA and was an excellent captain of Natal and the Dolphins, seems irrevocably lost to the SA system. “I want to make England my family’s home and Durham have given me every opportunity to lengthen my own career,” he said after the championship triumph.
The Indian board’s implacable opposition to the unsanctioned league is a problem for English counties trying to qualify for the Champions League, with 15 of the 18 counties having ICL players on their books.
The ICL has requested the approval of the International Cricket Council and ICC president David Morgan has agreed to meet Subhash Chandra of the Zee entertainment and television company, which backs the ICL, this month.- The Times
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