If reports are to be believed, the IPL franchise owners are said to have won the team auction after purchasing all 6 franchises in the new CSA T20 League. On July 13th, the teams’ bidding round came to an end. The brand-new South African domestic T20 League was announced in April.
“The company is looking at a very attractive player salary bill per team that will rival other leagues around the world outside of the IPL,” a CSA release had said in April earlier this year. The league, which is slated to start up the following year, will compete against a different, equally new T20 league in the United Arab Emirates. There were nearly 29 parties interested in buying the teams at CSA T20. However, it is known that the owners of MI, CSK, LSG, RR, DC, and SRH have purchased the teams.
Possible CSA T20 Teams and their owners
- Team based in Cape Town: Mukesh Ambani (MI)
- Johannesburg team: N Srinivasan (CSK)
- Pretoria Capitals: Parth Jindal (DC)
- Durban franchise: Sanjiv Goenka (LSG)
- Team in Port Elizabeth: Marans (SRH)
- Paarl-based franchise: Manoj Badale (RR)
According to estimates, MI and CSK made the largest financial offers. They totalled over INR 250 crores. As per the IPL business model, each team will be required to pay 10% of the franchise price for 10 years. Franchise cricket has seen the rise of South African talents. Recently, MI gave opportunities to Tristan Stubbs and Dewald Brevis and CSK previously employed people like Faf du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi.
Moreover, no other investor, even the group led by Kevin Pietersen, could match the enormous bids of the IPL owners. It demonstrates the financial clout of the league. When the CSA publishes the decision approach later this month, more information is anticipated to become available.