T20 Global League designed to make players earn more: Haroon Lorgat

Following in the footsteps of the IPL, BBL and NatWest Blast T20, South Africa are set to launch a franchise-based league of their own. The Global T20 League will kick off on November 3 and a total of 57 T20s will be played within the next 43 days. The CEO of Cricket South Africa (CSA) – Haroon Lorgat – is the mastermind behind the making of the league.

Brimstone Investment, one of only two local franchise owners, withdrew from the bidding process as they wanted to partially own a franchise, an option CSA was never open to. Lorgat said that the Board is principled and strict on its governance policies. While he was gutted with not many locals coming forward to buy a team, Lorgat was happy with the portfolio of owners they have managed to attract.

“CSA prides itself on good governance and being principled. If you were in attendance at our AGM on the 2nd of September, you would have heard the high standards of our corporate governance being complimented by the Deputy Minister of Sport in his address to the meeting. Naturally, CSA is disappointed that there are not many South Africans who are team owners but with the well-governed process we ran, the ownership of the eight teams boasts the best owners from around the world.”

Global T20 will make local cricketers financially stronger

Lorgat also pointed out that one of the reasons to roll out a league of their own was to financial securing the players so that they are not lured in by opportunities of outside of South Africa. Recently, the national team lost a couple of good young players to Kolpak deals. The 57-year old also wanted the domestic cricketers to be provided with an opportunity to impress and earn substantially better.

“Amongst our other goals, we designed the T20 Global League to be aspirational for South African cricketers and to improve their earning potential, especially those not in the Proteas set-up or on the international scene. We hope the new league will not only provide them with opportunities to display their talents to a global audience and play alongside other international players but by earning more they will be dissuaded from looking elsewhere,” said Lorgat.

Lorgat was confident of the planning of the event. They chose the months of November and December which is generally an off-season for the South Africans. He highlighted that monsoons are usually dry in South Africa hence the timing of the event just before the start of the international season is perfect.

“The November/December window is during the better part of our traditional cricket season. From our point of view, the timing is perfect as our international home season will start with the Boxing Day Test. South Africa is blessed with good weather and we are lucky not to have a monsoon-type rainy season. Past experience of playing during this time of year proves the weather should not affect the tournament to any great extent.”

The CEO is hoping that the tournament will not only evolve the cricket but also boost tourism which will be great for the country’s economy.