CSA optimistic of T20GL launch

CAPE TOWN: Cricket South Africa remain “very optimistic” about launching the T20 Global League this year even as time ticks by and uncertainty remains over most of the details.

With the league's window slated for November, CSA have a little more than five months to put everything together and are still to decide how many teams the league will comprise, who will own the teams and whether the birth of a fresh tournament would spell the end of the Ram Slam. The T20GL's launch was aborted in 2017 just three weeks before it was scheduled to begin, a farce that cost CSA more than R180m. Since calling off the league in October, CSA have had more than seven months to pick through the carcass and come up with a workable model. In March a T20GL task team had an initial proposal kicked back at them by the CSA board, who called for the private owners to be re-engaged. That re-engagement was largely fruitless, and owners have now had their deposits returned to them.

Despite the continued setbacks CSA's acting chief executive Thabang Moroe still expects a league to be put in place in 2018, with the organisation's members set to meet on June 3 to discuss the way forward. “We are very optimistic,” he told Cricbuzz. “We have set deadlines for ourselves, and if we can reach the milestones we have set as far as budgets are concerned, we will be able to launch the league this year. In 2017 we only announced the owners of the teams in July (actually June), so we still have some time. We are not resting on our laurels thinking that it's going to be smooth sailing but we are optimistic about launching this year.”

The 2017 tournament was essentially torpedoed by the absence of a broadcaster, but it is understood that CSA are closer to securing a broadcast relationship. A joint deal with SuperSport and Sony is understood to be close, although Moroe said that CSA have approached other broadcasters as well. The role of SuperSport has been a sticky one since the nascent stages of the league's creation.