Another nation has brought into the T20 franchise cricket and that is South Africa. With 6 teams in the fray, lot of hopes are pinned on this league to bring in the much need revenue for Cricket South Africa. Cricket in South Africa is slowly losing steam. It can be gauged by an outsider from the talents or the lack of it of the players representing the nation ever since the retirement of some of the great cricketers. If the Graeme Smith era dominated world cricket for a reasonable timeframe, the Faf du Plessis era saw them not that bad. Ever since all of them left, the South African team has been hurtling from one defeat to another which is only saved by wins at home. Will the new South Africa T20 league give a fillip to the sport?
Kolpak players
Before Brexit, Britain’s exit from the European Union, South Africa had the problem of most of their talented cricketers going onto England to play for various County teams as a Kolpak qualified professional. They qualified as local player. The most important condition to play in England is that the concerned cricketer must not play for their national team to be considered a local. Sportspersons career is too short and to make themselves financially secured, they had to resort to such practises and no one judged them for choosing this way.
As a result, South Africa lost a lot of excellent cricketers. Kevin Pietersen is an excellent example. These players who could have given back something to the system, were lost forever. This and combined with the fact that Cricket South Africa does not pay their cricketers a high enough renumeration resulted in youngsters staying out of the game. This directly resulted in serious talent crunch and as a result, the South African team is struggling overseas against good opponents. Though they won recently in the West Indies and drew in New Zealand, they were humiliated in England and massacred in Australia.
“We want to play our role in reviving (South African) cricket,” said SA20 commissioner and former Test captain Graeme Smith. We want to get people into the stadium and cheering again.”
South Africa have put all the eggs in this one basket
The stakes involved in the T20 league is enormous. It will not be a wrong statement to state that the entire South African cricket’s survival depends on the success of the league. Cricket South Africa have laid down their cards on the success of this league. Cricket South Africa have reduced the international commitments of their players inorder to enable every South African cricketer to participate in the league.
The Chief Executive, Moseki says,
“You might say the programme is light but it was intentional on our side. We needed to make room for our new T20 competition.”
An entire month and that too within the season, has been allocated just for this tournament. It shows how desperate South African cricket is. They want to be able to attract young talents into cricket. Inorder to do that, they will have to pay them well and through this league, they can showcase that apart from representing South Africa, they can also get paid really well in this league.
The one good thing about this league is that all the 6 teams were bought by the franchises involved in Indian Premier League. They will leave no stone unturned to ensure its success. The pay will also be on the higher side ensuring that enough cricketers are lured into the league. Tickets for the first few games were completely sold out.
Some interesting rules
An interesting rule is that each team will be allowed to nominate 13 players before the toss and select the final eleven, after the toss. Points system has also seen rather drastic changes. Other important rules are
- The pace of play will be protected without suspensions with captains charged with in-game penalties for slow over-rates through fielding restrictions.
- There has been an amendment to the free-hit rule, a bowled dismissal can’t lead to byes if the ball ricochets off the stumps.
- Positive and attacking fielding will be encouraged. No runs can be taken off an intentional attempt to run out the batter if a direct hit deflects off the stumps.
- There will be two strategic time-outs of 2 minutes 30 seconds in duration in each innings. The time-outs are to allow the teams to re-group tactically.
Challenges for the league
Having Indian franchises and cricketers from around the globe is not a guarantee to the success of the league. Mainly because of 2 important factors. Other competing leagues like BBL & Indian audience. Around the same time as SAT20, BBL, which has become quite popular over the last 10 years, will be in full swing. The pay in that league is also higher. International cricketers are bound to choose BBL if they feel that SA T20 will not be alright. Further, the keep CSA at the top of their toes, the ILT20, the new league in the United Arab Emirates will also be held during the same timeframe. Cricketers who can pull-in the crowds are likely to be swayed of either of them. How is CSA going to compete with them?
Lastly, Indian audience. It is no secret that India runs world cricket. Will Indians be aroused to follow the fortunes of a leagues that is held few hundred kilometres away? Let us remember that no Indian player is involved in CSA. It is only the franchise and none of them have names of any Indian city. The challenges infront of CSA is cut-throat. Will they be able to raise above them?
Wrapping up The new South Africa T20 league
Cricket needs a strong South Africa. Strong South Africa needs a strong base of players to choose from who needs incentive to play the sport. It is a delicate balance that CSA is trying to manage.