SA20: An attempt to save cricket in South Africa?

Rohan Banerjea

In August 2022, Cricket South Africa announced a new short-format cricket league called the SA20, which began on January 10, and will finish on Saturday. The league consists of 6 teams, all owned by current IPL sides. But why exactly has this league been organised?

As it stands, South Africa are 9th in the ICC’s World Cup Super League standings, which would mean that they wouldn’t automatically qualify for the 50-over world cup in November. In addition, the men’s team have only arranged 28 Tests in the next four year period, compared to England’s 43, Australia’s 40, and India’s 38. South African cricket has been losing money for a long time, with a loss of $11.625 million last year, and its domestic cricket competition has become unsustainable.

Poor performance in international cricket has also led to a lack of belief. South Africa suffered an embarrassing loss to the Netherlands last year, and only narrowly avoided a clean sweep in their test series against Australia earlier this year. As a result, the nation’s cricket board have faced criticism.

So, in an attempt to prevent continued decline of cricket in South Africa, the SA20 was set up, to provide revenue to be invested in the international team. Fortunately, the opening game was a sell-out, and the games carried on attracting large crowds and television deals. This has surely been aided by the involvement of IPL franchises, which has attracted foreign stars to the league. English players Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer play for Paarl (Rajasthan) Royals and Mumbai Indians Cape Town respectively.

The new tournament was successful that Cricket South Africa have written to the organiser Graeme Smith about the public recognition of Cricket South Africa’s involvement in the success. Only time will tell just how financially successful this new league will be, but an average attendance of about 20,000 suggests that the numbers were pleasing to Cricket South Africa and everyone involved with South African cricket.