Reports | IPL teams expand abroad as six franchises secure place in new South African T20 league
Six IPL-teams have reportedly won bids for franchises in CSA's new T20 league
|BCCI
Six IPL teams have managed to successfully place a bid for being one of the teams in the newly formatted T20 league presented by Cricket South Africa, as per reports from Cricbuzz. The tournament is scheduled to hold its first edition in the year 2023 featuring a franchise model.
Having established itself as the world’s best T20 league by most commercial measures, the teams competing in the Indian Premier League seem set to hunt for bigger fish. A report from Cricbuzz has stated that as many as six franchises competing in the tournament have won their bids for a team in the upcoming T20 League to be presented by Cricket South Africa (CSA), scheduled to begin in February 2023.
The rainbow nation has had several attempts at hosting domestic T20 tournaments over the years, only to eventually scrap the format altogether in favour of a franchise-based model. The tournament’s first edition will take place next year, leading to a private auction for the available teams in the ongoing month. The period for the deals was 10 years much like the IPL, with the winners obliged to pay 10% of the franchise fee every year.
The deadline for the bids was reportedly the 13th of July and saw CSA receive a total of 29 Expressions of Interest. This included the likes of Kevin Pietersen’s consortium among others, but it was Mukesh Ambani of Mumbai Indians, N Srinivasan of Chennai Super Kings, Parth Jindal of Delhi Capitals, the Marans of SunRisers Hyderabad, Sanjiv Goenka of Lucknow Super Giants and Manoj Badale of Rajasthan Royals who reportedly managed to clinch the deal for the franchises.
The highest value bids were made by IPL’s two most successful teams, namely the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, with each offering nearly INR 250 crores. The official winners of the franchises will be revealed by CSA at the end of this month
“Mumbai Indians are set to have their team in Cape Town. Chennai Super Kings, one of the most popular IPL franchises, is likely to be given the franchise based Johannesburg while Jindal, the co-owner of the Delhi Capitals, will have his team based out of Centurion in Pretoria. It will be called the Pretoria Capitals,” the reports said.
“Of the remaining two cities, SunRisers Hyderabad could have its team in Port Elizabeth while the Royals are expected to have their base in Paarl,” it added.
This brand new league is the latest among an outburst of T20 leagues across the world and thus, as is natural, will be facing stiff competition. A T20 league purported in the UAE is likely to take place in the same window as the CSA’s league, causing a split in talent across the two.
“Faf du Plessis, one of the biggest T20 stars who is now a free agent, will stay in South Africa. Dwayne Bravo too will be there, most probably with the CSK-owned team, but many other West Indies are going to the UAE,” the report stated further.
