De Villiers ‘extremely excited’ to play MSL

JOHANNESBURG: AB de Villiers is “extremely excited” to play cricket again in next month’s Mzansi Super League, Cricket South Africa’s new T20 competition.

De Villiers, who announced his retirement from international cricket at the end of Indian Premier League 2018, is part of the Tshwane Spartans squad, and their game on the opening weekend of the MSL in November will mark the end of a six-month break from the game for him.

“I haven’t played cricket for a while, but I am getting back into the swing of things,” de Villiers said at the Tshwane Spartans launch at their home ground, SuperSport Park. “I have had these kinds of breaks before and it is always a challenge to get fit and hit balls again. I am really looking forward to that, and what will be a really good challenge in the Mzansi Super League.”

The MSL is CSA’s second attempt at their own home-grown T20 league, and though they are latecomers to the global T20 league circuit, de Villiers said the development was a major milestone in South African cricket.

“It is a huge step in the right direction for Cricket South Africa, and South African cricket,” he said. “As a unit, we’ll be looking to not just pull this tournament off, but make it a great spectacle for fans around the world to enjoy.”

The broadening of cricket’s fan base in South Africa has been central to CSA’s thinking in re-structuring their T20 league after the aborted first attempt. Financial stability could be a trickier challenge as the MSL’s first season will cost more than it brings in, with CSA budgeting for an R40 million ($2.7 million) loss, while it is understood that the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) picked up exclusive television rights to the tournament for free. But de Villiers insisted that the league had great potential.

“It is difficult to say (how big the MSL could get) but the potential is huge,” de Villiers added. “This tournament will give us a feel of what to expect and where it is going to go, but it will get better every single year. In the beginning, the IPL was a bit slow because people did not know where it was going to go, but look at it now.”