Ken Borland

With teams like the Chennai Super Kings and the owners of the Mumbai Indians investing in South Africa’s new T20 league, sources say Cricket South Africa and SuperSport could not turn down the millions of dollars they stand to make and have awarded all six franchises to IPL bidders with deep pockets and plenty of experience in operating professional sport franchises.

CSA confirmed that the owners of the six franchises in the new league to start next January would be Mumbai Indians owners Reliance Industries (based at Newlands); RPSG Sports Private Limited, the owners of Lucknow Super Giants (Kingsmead); Sun TV Network Limited, the owners of Hyderabad Sunrisers (St George’s Park); Chennai Super Kings (Wanderers); Royals Sports Group, of Rajasthan (Boland Park) and JSW Sports, the co-owners of Delhi Capitals (SuperSport Park).

And, in keeping with the Indian Premier League being the richest cricket tournament in the world, those six investors’ bids reportedly far outstripped any other of the 20-odd Expressions of Interest CSA received. Sources say the average bid for a franchise amounted to $25 million, and nobody else could compete with those numbers.

The team owners will pay 10% of that figure per year, for 10 years. CSA get roughly half of that annual fee, amounting to $1.25 million per team, per year; and that amounts to $7.5 million per year, which, by today’s exchange rate, is a whopping R128 million per annum.

It is not exaggerating to say domestic cricket will die without that extra income allowing CSA to subsidise their vital pipeline.

Over the 10-year lifespan of these franchise deals, that will be an injection of more than a billion rand into South African cricket.

One South African cricket insider described it as “crazy money” and, with an appealing time zone in terms of the Indian market, the new T20 league should become an international brand in its own right.

It is believed the Chennai Super Kings put in an enormous $40 million bid for the Wanderers franchise, which is probably 10 times more than the leading local bidders could afford.

The compulsory local development initiatives that all bidders had to have as part of their submissions is also an appealing prospect for the domestic game. It is hoped that these IPL owners will allow the provincial structures based at the six venues to play an active role in the league, rather than just flying in and taking over the premises for a couple of months and then jetting off again.

With the Indian teams having made such a massive investment, could the South African league be the first to benefit from an allowance for current Indian players to compete in the tournament in the years to come?

To be frank, it was a demolition as South Africa slammed a mighty 333/5 batting first in the opening ODI against England at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday, Rassie van der Dussen leading the way with a fabulous century.

Having lost the toss in sweltering, heatwave conditions in Durham, north-east England, the home side were ill-equipped to handle the clinically efficient Proteas batting line-up, a flat pitch and the soaring temperatures which reached in excess of 35°C, necessitating extra drinks breaks.

Quinton de Kock (19) and Janneman Malan produced a solid start, putting on 35 in the first six-and-a-half overs before De Kock misjudged the lower bounce of a Sam Curran cutter and was bowled trying to pull.

That brought Van der Dussen to the crease and he immediately set about his business building an innings of considerable substance. Without ever seemingly being in a rush, he drove beautifully through the covers and used the reverse-sweep to good effect as he brought up his half-century off just 45 balls.

Malan had gone to a composed half-century himself, but began to lose steam in his innings and fell for 57 off 77 balls in the 26^th over, holing out at cow-corner off Moeen Ali.

The real destruction came when Aiden Markram joined Van der Dussen and the pair blasted 151 runs for the third wicket off just 123 balls.

Markram took a little while to find the right tempo to his innings, perhaps going a little too hard at the ball at first, but once he let his class take over, he was near unstoppable as he slammed 77 off 61 balls.

Markram fell in the 46^th over as South Africa looked to ram home their advantage, holing out to spinner Liam Livingstone, and Van der Dussen fell two balls later to the same bowler, bowled by another delivery that skidded through low.

But by then Van der Dussen had plundered 133 off 117 balls, his ODI stats reaching for the heavens as he has now scored 1498 runs in 30 innings at an average of 74.90 and a strike-rate of 90.56.

David Miller scored a rather scratchy 24 not out off 14 balls and there was some reward for the persevering Brydon Carse, who comes from South Africa, as he dismissed Heinrich Klaasen (12).

Stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj leads South Africa into an ODI series against world champions England from Tuesday and he said on Monday that “For me it’s about picking up where Temba Bavuma left off, we know our strategy and philosophy as a team.”

Regular captain Bavuma will miss the entire England tour due to a torn tendon in his elbow, and the ODI fortunes of the Proteas will be watched with keen interest because it is the one format in which their performances have lagged a bit. Plus there is the unprecedented decision to forfeit three Super League World Cup qualifying matches in Australia next January.

These three ODIs in England are not part of the Super League, but they will be a good indicator of whether South Africa’s 50-over team is starting to come together with a World Cup next year.

“Relatively speaking, we have not done as well in ODIs,” Maharaj said, “but we have tried various methods and combinations and hopefully we have found our rhythm now.

“We have put in a lot of hard work in the last 12 months and hopefully we will see results now. This might not be part of the Super League, but we are still playing international cricket and representing our country.

“It’s an opportunity to play more together as a unit, and it is still an important series as we try and get those combinations right for when there are lots of important Super League points coming up.

“We are trying to build some confidence in the ODI unit, we have come a long way and this series is an opportunity to do something special as a team,” Maharaj said.

Forewarned is forearmed and hopefully the Proteas will not be shellshocked when the England batsmen launch their now trademark all-out assault on them from the start of their innings.

“England do have a very positive approach, and if conditions allow it then we can be more aggressive too. But it’s about being smart and doing what we can to negate their batting.

“England have a lot of all-rounders in their middle/lower order and they bat quite deep. We have to make sure we execute the basics, get our thinking right on the day and adapt very quickly to conditions,” Maharaj said.

The venue for the first ODI – Chester-le-Street – is in Durham, the capital of the north-east of England, and the last time the Proteas were here was in the 2019 World Cup when their pacemen cashed in on helpful conditions to bowl Sri Lanka out for 203 and win by nine wickets. It was one of their few good days in that tournament.

England will want to capitalise on the emotion of Ben Stokes, the hero of their World Cup triumph, playing his last ODI on his home ground, the Test captain having announced his retirement from the international 50-over format on Monday.

The aggressive approach of the English is an obvious factor the Proteas are going to have to deal with when their ODI series gets underway at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday and paceman Lungi Ngidi says South Africa will need to bring a lift of intensity to counter the home side.

England’s approach to batting seems to be to go all-out attack from the outset and 350 seems to be the par score they have in mind whatever the conditions.

“England are definitely going to put us under pressure,” Ngidi said on Sunday. “They do put bowling line-ups under pressure and we have to play with a tempo and in the way we need. Our batsmen have had to tune in and shift their mindset and they will attempt to do the same.

“Everyone is pretty much mentally ready, we know what England will bring and we’ve got to lift our intensity. As bowlers, if we can get early wickets and put their batting line-up under pressure then anything can happen.

“We played here in the World Cup and we’ve seen the conditions this week – lots of cloud cover overhead and the ball moves around a bit. That gives confidence to the bowlers,” Ngidi said.

With the batsmen coming full tilt at you as the bowler, the 26-year-old Ngidi knows he is going to have to bring all his variations to the party.

“We’ll take any assistance we can get. You try to assess the conditions and after the first two overs you know what the pitch will give you and you’ve delivered pretty much all your balls.

“If you bowl at just one pace then the batsmen get used to it, they can free their arms and get that free-flowing momentum. You play a mental game with the batsmen, especially if you can disguise your cutters well.

“I’ve practised them well and I’m confident I can use them in the powerplay. I have a senior role with the ball, I would love to lead the attack and hopefully lots of wickets will come my way,” Ngidi said.