Johannesburg Giants will look to carve their own niche during the T20 Global League

The South Africa’s Global T20 League is set to start in the month of November and each of the franchises are making sure that they are well placed before the kickoff. The Johannesburg franchise is well aware of the fact the citizens are already glued to Premier Soccer league and their favorite team Orlando Pirates, but cricket team believes that they will be able to create a unique brand for themselves.

The Giants have signed in former New Zealand international Brendon McCullum as their marquee international player while Kagiso Rabada is their marquee Protea player. The team has got some promising names under their banner- Vernon Philander, Temba Bavuma and spinner Yasir Shah.

Different sports, different passion

“I think the Giants will be able to carve out a niche for themselves and create that passion amongst the fans,” said the franchise’s CEO, Hemant Dua. “As far as I know most sports fans normally follow more than one team. You could be a Kaizer Chiefs fan and still be a Giants fan. You could be an Orlando Pirates fan and still be a Giants fan. What the Giants bring to those two sets of football fans is a common platform for them to rally behind.” “The giant city that this is, it’s important (to understand) that all kinds of people live here, they have different passions and different sports they want to follow,” Dua added.

The Delhi Daredevils connection

Dua and his team owns the Delhi Daredevils franchise in the IPL and are aware of the T20 challenges of the global T20 events.“I think that the T20 Global League will carve its own niche. The IPL is at a different level, that’s because you have a billion people following it, you don’t have a billion people here. You look at the Big Bash in Australia it’s carved its own niche in a nation that’s crazy about Aussie Rules football, has a large amount of soccer, rugby and other stuff.”