SA20 League to kickstart on January 10: Details here
Cricket South Africa (CSA) has announced the schedule for the inaugural edition of the SA20 League. The star-studded tournament will begin on January 10, with MI Cape Town taking on Paarl Royals in the opener. The tournament comprising 33 matches will unfurl over a period of a month, concluding on February 10 in Johannesburg. Here are further details.
Why does this story matter?
In July, CSA announced the launch of a new franchise-based T20 league in association with broadcaster SuperSport. The new tournament comes as another effort from CSA to popularize franchise-based T20 cricket in the country. Each franchise could build a squad of 17 players with a maximum of seven overseas options. And, the franchises could pick at most five players in the pre-auction.
A look at other important details
CSA will host the rebranded T20 tournament across six venues in the country - Cape Town, Paarl, Gqeberha, Durban, Pretoria, and Johannesburg. Durban will host only two matches at Kingsmead in the second half of the tourney. The rest will be held at Wanderers and SuperSport Park due to a clash with the 2023 Women's T20 WC, commencing February 10.
Here are the important dates
The tournament commences on January 10. As per the schedule, the competition will witness a week-long break owing to international cricket (January 25-February 1). In this interval, South Africa will play host to a three-match ODIs against England. The action will resume on February 2, with the semi-finals scheduled for February 8 and 9. The finale will take place on February 10.
Where to watch SA20 League?
According to Cricbuzz, Viacom18 Sports will broadcast the T20 tournament in India right from the start, while SuperSport will be telecasting the same in Sub-Saharan Africa.
IPL team owners bought franchises
Indian Premier League (IPL) team owners have acquired each of the six CSA T20 league franchises - Mukesh Ambani (Mumbai Indians), N Srinivasan (Chennai Super Kings), Parth Jindal (Delhi Capitals), the Marans (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Sanjiv Goenka (Lucknow Super Giants), and Manoj Badale (Rajasthan Royals). MI: Cape Town, CSK: Johannesburg, DC: Pretoria, LSG: Durban, SRH: Port Elizabeth, and RR: Paarl.
SA20 League auction took place in September
Back in September, CSA concluded with the first-ever auction for the inaugural SA20 League. 22-year-old Tristan Stubbs garnered the highest bid (R 9.2 million) and joins Sunrisers East Cape. Left-arm seamer Marco Jansen was the costliest buy among bowlers (R 6.1 million) and accompanies the former. Meanwhile, SA's limited-overs skipper Temba Bavuma remained unsold.
