MUMBAI: Of the bids that came in for six franchises to buy teams in the upcoming Cricket South Africa (CSA) T20 league, owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL) teams snapped them all in a process conducted by audit and consultancy firm Deloitte.
Five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians walked away with Cape Town, four-time winners Chennai Super Kings took away Johannesburg, Delhi Capitals bought Pretoria, Lucknow Super Giants bought Durban, Sunrisers Hyderabad bought Port Elizabeth and Rajasthan Royals bought Paarl.
Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith has been appointed commissioner, making it the first ever instance of a cricketer heading a T20 league.
This league, backed by CSA, is the brainchild of former IPL COO Sundar Raman.
The finer draft of franchise agreements are still being looked into by Deloitte and official announcements will be made between Tuesday and Thursday this week.
Cricket South Africa just recently cancelled its bilateral commitment in Australia to make time and space for the brand new league that gets underway in January next year.
While the league will certainly help CSA financially given the investors on board, the time zone allows CSA to benefit immensely give the manner in which the country caters to global time zones.
Further, this T20 league is bound to come as a shot in the arm for IPL as the marquee Indian T20 property goes global in every sense of the word. For the record, there are 11 IPL titles between four of the six IPL franchises that have bought teams in South Africa.
"It'll keep IPL a major talking point beyond the three months it is played in India, considering it is the IPL franchises who have stamped their presence there. It'll also further improve India-South Africa relations," say those tracking developments.
