Dubai: South Africa will launch a major Twenty20 cricket league similar to the Indian Premier League (IPL), Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) and West Indies’ Caribbean Premier League.
In an exclusive interview with Gulf News, Haroon Lorgat, the chief executive of Cricket South Africa, said: “It is an exciting time for South African cricket. The #T20 Global Destination League with eight participating teams will debut in November-December.”
When asked whether he thinks that South Africa, despite being a strong power in world cricket, has been late in launching their own T20 league, Lorgat said: “You are perhaps right we should have been earlier with a league of this profile but there were many things we wanted to sort out including strengthening our governance, administration and finances — as we wanted to plan this league properly.”
To a query whether the teams will be named after eight provinces, Lorgat said: “We are going to have it city based. There are also plans for more than one team in the major cities. So the Johannesburg area with Centurion, we could have three teams. Cape Town could have two teams. Durban and Port Elizabeth are the major centres and one elsewhere in one of the other centres. We have got major stadiums that could host those teams.”
With regard to the window for the event, Lorgat added: “We have worked it out for November and December. We have decided to have the final on December 16 which is a bank holiday and public holiday in South Africa. So we will work backward from that date to early November or the beginning of November.”
Lorgat made it clear that the matches will be held in South Africa only. “At this stage we have not got thoughts of anywhere else but South Africa because we have got the cricketing culture, the public support and infrastructure.
Are there chances of Indian players playing in it? “We would of course welcome players from India as we would from anywhere in the world. We will talk to the BCCI, we have started some conversations but there is a lot of settling down that needs to take place there. It is an aspiration of ours that players from India would play in league,” he insisted.
Will retired players be allowed to play in it? “If the owners are interested and the coach of the team want to pick retired players it is fine, but it is not a league for retired players. It is the best players that we would showcase and if a former player who has just retired and he is still a very good T20 player, that is up to the team to select,” said Lorgat, who is expecting huge viewership for the league.
“South Africa is in a favourable time zone. You can get the subcontinental market, the UK market and also on the fringes where you have got Australia and West Indies you can sometimes catch that market too. So we are favoured by the time zone and the support for the game. South Africa has good fan base and a good cricketing culture so we are lucky in that sense including good weather.”
Lorgat will also draw from his experience as former ICC chief executive to make the event a success. “I think I have been lucky as I got to see cricket across the world. I have been involved in administering it across the world so I have built up a very good network. People know me and there is confidence that our governance structure back in South Africa is very strong.”
Talking about possible days for an auction, Lorgat said: “We are into the franchise bidding process, the tender that went out today has got a window up until the March 3 to express interest and then into submitting formal proposals. So by the end of May we would have worked out or determined the potential owners and after that we will start talking about team names. With the owners we want to develop the team names and who they want to recruit as coaches and then we will go into the players draft system and so there is still some work to do. So the window between now and the end of May is about determining who the franchise owners will be.”
Lorgat, who along with Cricket South African president Chris Nenzai informed the ICC members attending the meeting here, also talked about the response from the ICC. “There was general excitement and support. People understood why South Africa needs to have a global league. We see there is an opportunity to develop the game further. We have got huge potential in South Africa which we haven’t yet unlocked. It is a commercial opportunity, we need funds to develop the game and we want to showcase the talent in the country.”
Lorgat also said that he has discussed the league with the great cricketers in South Africa. “In fact I haven’t got their permission to disclose their names but we are in discussion. In fact some cricketers from abroad we will be talking to over the next few weeks. We want to have them as ambassadors to the teams and to the tournament. We are going to try and be as inclusive and broad as possible and early indications are very good support from all of these players.”
