Cricket South Africa's inaugural T20 Global League postponed to 2018 amidst fear of running losses

Sport360 staff 19:55 10/10/2017
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  • The league was the brainchild of former CSA chief Haroon Lorgat.

    The inaugural T20 Global League, the brainchild of Cricket South Africa (CSA), has been postponed to November 2018 instead of its original scheduled start of November 3 later this year.

    The franchise based T20 format, was former CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat’s pet project but the administrator parted ways with the board inexplicably in September.

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  • There had been murmurs of the lack of a title sponsor and a television broadcast deal being major stumbling blocks for the T20 cricket’s latest product to get underway.

    Last week, acting CSA CEO Thabang Moroe remarked that the first editions of the T20 Global League would run into losses.

    On Tuesday, following a meeting of the CSA and the T20 Global League board along with consultations with the franchise owners, it was decided to postpone the inaugural edition to November, 2018.

    The CSA then released a statement to that effect but failed to give specifics as to why the league was being postponed as such.

    “We have not come to this decision lightly,” commented Moroe.

    The likes of Gayle and Pollard had signed on for the first edition.

    The likes of Gayle and Pollard had signed on for the first edition.

    “Having discussed it with all our stakeholders including the franchise owners, we believe that the interest of the league should be our first priority. We have re-assessed our strategy and believe that postponing the first edition of the T20 Global League to next year will serve us well.

    “We will regroup and come back stronger and better. At this time, we also wish to thank all the players, sponsors, broadcast partners, SACA (South African Cricketers Association) and FICA (Federation of International Cricketers) who have committed to the project. We appreciate the continued support of the individuals and organisations who have believed in this tournament.”

    Moroe stated that the various franchise owners were in complete support of the decision of postponement.

    The T20 Global League has eight various franchises for which the inaugural player draft was held in August this year.

    A host of international stars including Jason Roy, Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, Eoin Morgan, Fakhar Zaman and many more had been picked up by the various franchises in the player draft held at Cape Town.

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