The inaugural South African T20 league has attracted a plethora of cricket stars. The league that kicked off yesterday was a low scoring match between Paarl Royals and MI Cape Town. While MI Cape Town won the match by 8 wickets, numerous fans were confused as to why the South African franchises had similar prefixes to IPL franchises.
Indian monopoly in foreign leagues
This is because IPL franchise owners bought all six franchises participating in the tournament. The open bid process, managed by Deloitte Corporate Finance, attracted over 29 entities who expressed interest in owning a franchise worldwide. Over 10 venues were made available for interested bidders to own a franchise and all 10 of them received expressions of interest.
Reliance Industries Limited (Mumbai Indians owner), Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited (Chennai Super Kings owner), Royals Sports Group (Rajasthan Royals owner), JSW Sports (Delhi Capitals co-owner), RPSG Sports Private Limited (Lucknow Super Giants owner) and Sun TV Network Limited (Sunrisers Hyderabad owner) won the bids for the six franchises.
Thus the teams Durban Super Giants share the same owner as Lucknow Super Giants, Joburg Super Kings (Chennai Super Kings), MI Cape Town (Mumbai Indian), Paarl Royals (Rajasthan Royals) Pretoria Capital (Delhi Capitals) and Sunrisers Eastern Cape (Sunrisers Hyderabad).
Will Indian players compete in foreign leagues?
Speculation is that the monopoly of Indian franchises in global leagues will prompt the BCCI to permit their active cricketers to play in foreign leagues. Reports have suggested that after repeated pressure from franchises, BCCI will accede to requests by other cricket boards while finalising the international calender from 2023 to 2027, in return for an extended clear window the BCCI will allow select players compete overseas.
