CSA announces franchises for the T20 Global League

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has announced the 8 teams and their owners who will be part of their domestic Twenty20 league, the inaugural T20 Global League later this year. The launch event was held at London’s The Bvlgari Hotel on Monday. The major attraction in the announcement was the franchises of the Indian Premier League and the Pakistan Super League bagging two teams each from the eight.

Kolkata Knight Riders’ owner, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, bought the Cape Town franchise. In fact, according to Shah Rukh’s video message at the event, they have named it as the Cape Town Knight Riders following the sequence of their earlier teams Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL and Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL.

Delhi Daredevils, owned by the GMR group has bought the Johannesburg franchise in this league. Kagiso Rabada will be their marquee player, who interestingly played for the DD team in the recent IPL. Fawad Rana, owner of Lahore Qalandar team in PSL bought the Durban-based franchise which has the services of the Hashim Amla while the owner of Peshawar Zalmi, Javed Afridi bought the Benoni franchise.

According to the CSA president Chris Nenzani, about 150 companies/individuals have shown their interest in bidding a team over the 11 available cities but based on the discussions of one and all, they have finalised the 8 franchises.

“Competition was stiff, with more than 150 Expressions of Interest (EOI) received from around the world and a shortlist of heavy hitters to consider,” said Nenzani. “After rigorous discussions and engagement with each of the potential owners, we are certain that our final eight owners have the perfect combination of strategic insight and passion needed to make the first T20 Global League a complete success,” he added.

A total of 11 host cities were available for bidding out of which East London, Kimberley and Potchefstroom failed to get a franchise. The player draft for the first edition of the league is expected to be held on August 19th with over 400 players across 10 countries.

Here is the list of the 8 franchises with host city, owners and their marquee players:

Franchise 1 – Durban: Owner – Fawad Rana (Lahore Qalandar), Marquee Player – Hashim Amla

Franchise 2 – Benoni: Owner – Javed Afridi (Peshawar Zalmi), Marquee Player – Quinton de Kock

Franchise 3 – Pretoria: Owner – Osman Osman (SA Consortium), Marquee Player – AB de Villiers

Franchise 4 – Stellenbosch: Owner – Mustaq Brey (Brimstone Investment Company), Marquee Player – Faf du Plessis

Franchise 5 – Cape Town: Owner – Shah Rukh Khan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Marquee Player – JP Duminy

Franchise 6 – Bloemfontein: Owner – Sushil Kumar (City Sports), Marquee Player – David Miller

Franchise 7 – Johannesburg: Owner – GMR Group (Delhi Daredevils), Marquee Player – Kagiso Rabada

Franchise 8 – Port Elizabeth:  Owner – Ajay Sethi (Channel 2), Marquee Player – Imran Tahir