JOHANNESBURG: Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced on Tuesday that its upcoming domestic competition will be named ‘T20 Cricket League’ that will replace the now-defunct T20 Global League in November-December.
CSA also took the opportunity to confirm that the country’s public broadcaster, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will be the tournament’s exclusive official media partner for the Sub-Saharan region till 2021. SABC will replace SuperSport with whom CSA weren’t able to finalize a sponsorship-cum-broadcast deal in time.
“This is a landmark moment for cricket in South Africa,” CEO of Cricket South Africa, Thabang Moroe said.
“For the first time South Africa’s premier public broadcaster will have exclusive rights to a major cricket event and this is very much in line with CSA’s vision of making cricket a truly national sport of excellence that is accessible to all.”
SABC CEO Madoda Maxakwe further stated, “The SABC treasures the good relationship that we have with CSA, which enables the two parties to enter into this groundbreaking partnership. It is a perfect deal, as it fits into the SABC’s business strategy of increasing audiences and revenue, delivering compelling and entertaining content and diversifying revenue streams. The deal is, therefore, one that is mutually beneficial both to the SABC and CSA.”
The T20 Cricket League will be live on SABC 3 and Radio 2000. Umhlobo Wenene FM will also broadcast some of the matches live. Further details of the T20 Cricket League including teams and their owners, players, hosting venues and fixtures will be announced shortly.
