Hoping to be part of the newly announced South African T20 league, a Dubai-based owner of a team in the now defunct South African Twenty20 Global League has welcomed the recent Cricket South Africa (CSA) announcement regarding reviving of the franchise-based tournament with SuperSport coming on board as broadcaster and joint equity partners.
According to the agreement, a new company will be formed, in which both CSA and SuperSport will be shareholders. The acting CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe told South African media that the deal was the biggest in the history of South African domestic cricket.
SuperSport will broadcast the competition throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the adjacent islands, and provide a broadcast feed to international broadcasters.
"I welcome SuperSport coming on board as we have been waiting for media deal, we wait for next step as we were not told in writing any thing," said Ajay Sethi, who owned Port Elizabeth franchise - Nelson Mandela Star - in the now-defunct Twenty20 Global League.
"We reserve our rights as team owner," he said in a statement released to Khaleej Times on Monday and he added that he had paid $250,000 as a refundable deposit, which is not returned yet.
When asked about his future plans for his franchise, he said: "Not yet ,let them write to us first we don't know any plan as yet."
All the eight franchise owners had paid a refundable deposit that has not been returned after CSA called of the Twenty20 Global League.
The newly proposed league, meanwhile, is set to be played during November and December 2018, and will consist of 32 matches.
Fearing a huge loss of around $425 million, the CSA had called off the Twenty20 Global League after Haroon Lorgat, who mooted the tournament, quit as the CSA chief executive in September. The Global League was to be a city-based franchise tournament, with foreign owners of seven of the eight teams.
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