Cricket South Africa have revived their attempt to launch a T20 league after the T20 Global League (TGL) failed to get off the ground.
Announcing a partnership with broadcaster SuperSport on Friday, Cricket South Africa said the board has learned from the mistakes of the TGL and will ensure a smooth launch of the tournament that is now scheduled for November-December later in the year.
Talking about the new deal, acting CEO of CSA Thabang Moroe said: “CSA is delighted to announce this equity partnership with our long-term broadcast partners SuperSport. We have put the problems we experienced with the Global T20 League behind us and look forward to hosting the new competition.”
Gideon Khobane, CEO of SuperSport, said: “CSA has been an outstanding partner of SuperSport’s for many years. This sees our relationship taken to the next level, where we will pool our resources in a partnership which will create high-quality cricket and provide entertaining content for cricket fans locally and broadcast viewers both domestically and globally.”
The T20 Global League was launched in June last year with a lot of fanfare and had three team owners from the Indian Premier League and two from the Pakistan Super League. The then board CEO Haroon Lorgat left the board in September as issues regarding the T20 league persisted. In the end, the inaugural season was postponed after no agreement was reached on a broadcast deal and the projected losses from the first edition estimated to be around $25 million.
According to ESPNCricinfo, the eight franchise owners have been refunded their $250,000 deposit which means they will not feature in the new league.
