South African Premier League cricket teams: The inaugural edition of CSA’s franchise T20 league will commence next year in January.
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The success of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in terms of viewership and most importantly revenue generation, with record deals in terms of broadcasting rights and other sponsorship deals in its fifteen years of existence, has acted as a perfect example and case study for the boards of other countries to follow suit.
Cricket South Africa has now decided to act as the latest entrant in this business of franchise T20 league, and in partnership with television broadcaster SuperSport, is set to commence with the inaugural season of the CSA T20 league, scheduled to begin in January 2023.
Former South African skipper Greame Smith has been appointed as the head of this T20 league, and will be handed the task to ensure the sustainability of the same, after the Mzansi Super League was forced to be scrapped because of broadcast rights issue.
Moreover, the welcoming news for CSA is that it is the owners of the six IPL teams, which have successfully bid for all the six franchises in the tournament.
South African Premier League cricket teams
Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Lucknow Super Giants, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals and one of the owners of Delhi Capitals managed to successfully bid for the CSA T20 league franchises last month.
As per verified reports, CSK, through parent company Chennai Super Kings Sports Limited, placed the highest bid for the Johannesburg franchise during the informal auction, and Reliance Industries – owners of MI, managed to buy the Cape Town team.
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The Sun TV Group – owners of SRH, bought the Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) franchise, and the RP Sanjeev Goenka group – owners of LSG who made their IPL debut this year, have acquired the Durban team.
The remaining two teams are from Paarl and Pretoria, which were bought by Rajasthan Royals and Parth Jindal (co-owner of Delhi Capitals) respectively.
As per the tournament rules, a team can sign only one capped South African player, three overseas players, and an uncapped player ahead of the players auction, scheduled to take place by the next few weeks, as per a CSA press release on Wednesday.
