Indian T20 League’s Franchises To Rule South Africa’s New T20 League

The South Africa Cricket Board took a surprising decision when they pulled out themselves from the ODI series against Australia later this year. It was found that they are going to introduce a new T20 League of six new teams and for that, they require their star players to be available at that time.

Bidding for these new teams was open till 13 July 2022 as a total of 29 Expressions of Interest (EoIs) were gathered. However, as per reports to Cricbuzz, franchises of the Indian T20 League are believed to have dominated the franchise auction.

Six Indian T20 League franchises are believed to rule this new T20 League

Earlier, the South Africa Cricket Board announced that the selection of the franchises will be announced only at the end of the month. However, six Indian T20 League franchises of Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, and Rajasthan reportedly had been informed about their successful bids. They were also asked to let the South Africa Board know about their choice of cities. As per rules, these franchises are set to pay 10 percent of the franchise fee for 10 years, just like the Indian T20 League.  

Mumbai is tipped to choose Cape Town while Chennai is most likely to choose Johannesburg. Apart from it, Delhi might opt for Centurion while Lucknow is believed to be interested in the Durban franchise. Hyderabad is likely to choose Port Elizabeth while the Royals are expected to choose Paarl. This new tournament is scheduled for January-February, 2023. As per recent reports, many England players like Jos Buttler, and Liam Livingstone are believed to play in this League’s inaugural season.

Global T20 stars like Faf du Plessis and Dwayne Bravo are also tipped to be available for this league. As of now, South Africa kicked off their tour of England on 19 July 2022 with the three-match ODI series. After that, they are scheduled to play a three-match T20I and a three-match Test series respectively.