Cricket South Africa cancels MSL 2021 season due to COVID-19

The Mzansi Super League (MSL) which was originally scheduled to take place in February 2022 has been cancelled. An important point to be noted is the fact that the tournament had managed to secure an official sponsor as well. The reason for it being officially called off is the difficult environment caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This isn’t the first time the MSL has been cancelled, as the 2020 edition was scrapped due to COVID-19 logistical challenges as well. This T20 tournament was originally slated to be a global T20 competition, much like IPL, BBL, CPL and PSL but hasn’t happened since the opening season.

Domestic T20 tournament to replace MSL

In a statement, CSA stated the reasons for calling off this edition of the MSL. Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s acting chief executive officer announced that a domestic T20 tournament organized by CSA will replace the T20 league. This domestic T20 tournament, which featured eight teams shall commence in February 2022.

“This was done to create a commercial vehicle to attract global and local sponsors as well as to drive interest in cricket amongst non-cricket fans in South Africa. However, restrictions such as stricter travel possibilities, the Bio-Secure Environment frustrations, fear of the new variant, and the weak Rand/US Dollar exchange rate are some of the main reasons why CSA has taken the decision to call off the 2022 version of the MSL,” stated the official CSA release, according to Cricbuzz.

“The decision to cancel the 2021 edition of the MSL is meant to allow CSA and its strategic partners to revamp and review the tournament post-Covid-19 to regain its market and commercial position. For its purposes, the MSL slot will again be replaced by a domestic CSA T20 Challenge, featuring the 8 (eight) Division 1 teams and this tournament will take place in February 2022,” said Pholetsi Moseki.

In the past weekend, due to the virus, CSA also postponed the remaining round of the CSA 4-Day Domestic Series across Divisions One and Two of the year. Thus, the last edition of the MSL happened in 2019, with the Paarl Rocks winning it.