CSA T20 league: Six IPL franchise owners dominate team auction
The recently-concluded team auction of Cricket South Africa's upcoming T20 league was dominated by Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises. As per Cricbuzz, the team owners of Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Lucknow Super Giants, and Rajasthan Royals have bagged the available six franchises of the league. Notably, the bidding closed with 29 Expressions of Interest (EoIs) on Wednesday.
- Earlier this month, CSA announced the launch of a new franchise-based T20 league in association with broadcaster SuperSport.
- The first season of the tournament is scheduled to get underway in January 2023.
- The new tournament comes as another effort from CSA to popularize franchise-based T20 cricket in the country.
- As stated, six IPL team owners have acquired franchises in the league.
As per Cricbuzz, Mukesh Ambani of MI, N Srinivasan of CSK, Parth Jindal of DC, the Marans of SRH, Sanjiv Goenka of LSG, and Manoj Badale of RR have bought six franchises in South Africa's T20 league. A look at the teams - MI: Cape Town, CSK: Johannesburg, DC: Pretoria Capitals, LSG: Durban, SRH: Port Elizabeth, and RR: Paarl.
Reportedly, MI and CSK placed the biggest financial bids during the auction (nearly Rs. 250 crore). According to the IPL model, each franchise would have to pay 10% of the franchise fee for a decade. Notably, several other non-Indian investors also placed bids, including the Kevin Pietersen-headed consortium. However, none of them could match the final bid of the IPL team owners.
Six teams will face each other twice in a round-robin stage before the top three progress to the playoffs. Overall, 33 games will be contested over a period of nearly four weeks. As per CSA, the tournament will also feature overseas players. Like the IPL, each team will be able to field up to four foreign players in the XI.
CSA and SuperSport will form a new company to manage the competition. A player auction will take place at a later date, while the tournament will be held in January every year. The first season will begin immediately after South Africa's Test tour of Australia.
