Cricket South Africa votes in favour of T20 League

CAPE TOWN: The member council of Cricket South Africa (CSA) unanimously voted in favour of launching the country's T20 League at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the board in Johannesburg on Saturday (September 8). The tournament, now green-lighted, is pencilled in to be played between November 9 and December 16 later this year.

The league will be a six-team event (as opposed to the eight that was supposed to be played last year) and will include a total of 30 games in a home-away format. This will be followed by one eliminator game and a final.

"Chief Executive Thabang Moroe and his management team have come with a commercial model that is both financially viable and offers promise for an exciting and long-term future that meets all the conditions laid down by the CSA Board of Directors. The Board had no hesitation in recommending this model to the Members Council," CSA President and chairman of the Board Chris Nenzani was stated as saying in his statement.

The tournament, which failed to get off the ground last year, has constantly run into rough weather since it was launched as the Global T20 League in London following last year's Champions Trophy. The finer details of the tournament chiefly pertaining to the commercials as well as the teams and venues remain yet to be decided although the timing of this edition puts in doubt the participation of South Africa's senior cricketers, who are likely to miss a part of the tournament owing to their ODI assignment in Australia scheduled between October 31 and November 17.

The financial issues, which crippled the tournament last year, still remain the biggest hurdle although CSA appeared to suggest that it has the reserves to fund the league as of now. Last month SuperSport pulled out of their equity partnership with the board for the league, with the board still needing to find a shareholder other than itself.

Last year's initial investors, meanwhile, have threatened to take CSA to court over its handling of the T20 tournament after the postponement. The tournament, which saw significant overseas investors in terms of franchise ownership, are desperate to keep hold of their franchises and participate in any South African T20 League. However, CSA is understood to be looking for at least one private ownership in the revised 2018 edition.

The board will have a race against time to find these backers and set up the league in totality given that this time last year, they were ready with the teams (after an elaborate draft process), venues and owners and a fixture list before it all came crashing down.