SA20: South Africa will host the SA20, a Twenty20 franchise cricket tournament. In January and February 2023, six teams from various South African cities will compete in the first edition of the tournament. The league was formally named the SA20 in August 2022.
In 2017, CSA introduced the T20 Global League, a franchise-based Twenty20 cricket league modeled on the Indian Premier League and Big Bash League. It was scheduled to start in November 2017, but was deferred by a year due to a lack of a broadcast deal and title sponsor. Six CSA-owned teams competed in Mzansi Super League, which replaced the event in June, 2018. Neither league was successful.
It was founded by Cricket South Africa (CSA) in 2022 as part of a newly formed company called Africa Cricket Development (Pty) Limited (ACD), in which CSA has a majority stake, 50%, with SuperSport owning 30% and Sundar Raman owning 20%. Six of the teams were purchased by franchises from the Indian Premier League (IPL). Due to CSA’s focus on the tournament in January 2023, the ODI series against Australia in July 2022 was cancelled. The tournament’s commissioner, Graeme Smith, was announced in August 2022. In the same month, the tournament’s marquee players were revealed.
A double round will be played between the six sides before the top three teams move on to the play-offs. The CSA has announced that teams will be able to acquire players through an auction model instead of a draft, making it the second league in the world to do so after the IPL. During the auction, each team will be able to pre-sign up to five players, including three internationals, one Proteas player, and one uncapped South African. As well as all contracted Proteas and domestic players, the League has already signed over 30 marquee international players.
Teams of SA20
As part of the tournament, the following teams and their owners will participate:
Broadcasters for SA20
CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki announced the SA20 in April 2022 in partnership with SuperSport, which has committed to broadcast all the matches live and produce the world feed. This was an entirely new event, with a sustainable business model being created for both the League and the teams.
South Africa entered into negotiations with Viacom 18 after the CSA tender process for exclusive media rights for SA20 in India failed to elicit encouraging responses. Viacom18 and CSA announced the strategic partnership in November 2022 and it will be broadcast on Sports 18 and on Jio platforms for ten years.
Controversy of SA20
Hermis Sports Ventures Limited, the owners of the now defunct Global T20 League franchise Pretoria Mavericks, requested from CSA a “reasonable opportunity” to apply for a franchise in the new league, On the basis of Thabang Moroe’s assurance that, if CSA ever starts a T20 league, the GLT20 franchise owners will have the right to own the teams, they will consider applying to the courts for an interdict to prevent the games from going ahead. The CSA is confident, however, that it will overcome the legal challenge.
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