“CSA has an opportunity to launch a project that could redefine the landscape and economics of cricket in South Africa.” – CSA on their latest T20 project.
Telford Vice | Cape Town
FORMER IPL kingpin Sundar Raman has a stake in the company that will try to catapult South Africa into the travelling T20 circus. That should convince potential investors that CSA are serious about their third attempt to secure a slice of the global tournament pie. Others will see the irony in Raman being cast as part of a solution to a problem he could be considered to have helped cause.
A document headlined “MSL: Re-imagined”, seen by Cricbuzz, was presented at a special CSA members council meeting on April 25. In it, Raman is listed as holding a 12.5% share in the company unveiled on Friday as the vehicle to drive the establishment of the tournament. CSA own 57.5% and broadcasters SuperSport the remaining 30%. The first edition of the as yet unnamed six-team competition is planned for January 2023.
If successful, the tournament will do what the stillborn the Global League T20 and the short-lived Mzansi Super League did not: make money. The document says CSA spent close on USD32-million on the two ventures. The most significant return was the USD1.6-million CSA were paid in rights fees by the South African Broadcasting Corporation for the 2019 MSL, the last time the tournament was played.
The league’s central costs, which excludes expenditure specific to each team, are estimated at USD56-million over 10 years. SuperSport have committed USD89-million to the project, and a minimum of USD30-million in central revenue over 10 years has been forecast. The latter will be shared equally between the league and the teams, who will keep funds generated by shirt sponsorships, ticket sales, hospitality and food and beverage sales. From the 11th year of the competition’s existence, teams will pay the league 20% of their revenue as a franchise fee.
Prize money has been estimated at USD2-million, and teams will have USD1.5-million to spend on signing players.
The document says “letters/expressions of interest” from potential investors have been received from the Delhi Capitals, the Chennai Super Kings, the Mumbai Indians, the Rajasthan Royals, and a “Kevin Pietersen-led consortium”.
CSA are understandably in awe of the blockbusting IPL, which has provided the blueprint for T20 tournaments everywhere. The document acknowledges that “the success of the IPL has changed the face and the economics of the BCCI; and CSA also has an opportunity to launch a project that a decade from now could redefine the landscape and economics of cricket in South Africa”. The other side of the equation is that “save for the IPL … success from cricketing and economic perspectives has been varied”. Indeed, “Outside of the IPL, no other premier domestic T20 league has had runaway success”. What to do? “CSA should therefore focus on the opportunity to create the second-best T20 league in the world.”
That is easier said than done, as cricketminded South Africans discovered in September 2017 — when then CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat was ousted on the brink, according to some sources, of securing a broadcast deal for what was to have been the GLT20. The MSL, less ambitious in that the franchises were owned by CSA, was a vanity project that was never going to be profitable.
CSA’s toxic culture of backstabbing and dishonesty fuelled by palace politics and greed has been a major factor in cricket in the country losing public and sponsor trust. Three of CSA’s four permanently appointed chief executives have left in dubious circumstances, and government pressure was needed to persuade the chronically dysfunctional former board to resign in October 2020. By then, heavyweight sponsors had walked away.
But even CSA can’t be blamed for all the game’s ills. In February 2014, the BCCI — with the support of their England and Australia counterparts — engineered a takeover of the ICC that skewed the game’s finances in favour of the already richer national boards. India, the richest of them all, hiked their share of the 2016 to 2023 rights cycle to USD440,000,000. The then 93 associate countries would have made USD230,000,000 between them over the same period. Or almost 180 times less than India. Each.
India’s argument was that, as they made most of cricket’s money, they should keep the largest share of the profits. Other boards objected, and in April 2017 it was decided that India would get USD293,000,000, and each of the rest of the full members USD132,000,000. The associates would share USD280,000,000. Cricket in South Africa has never really recovered.
The BCCI president who sparked that revolution was N. Srinivasan. His righthand man? Sundar Raman. Eight years later, Raman — the IPL’s first chief of operations and later its chief executive — is involved in trying to undo some of the ramifications of the changes Srinivasan wrought.
It’s not too late and it might not be too little, but helping to drag cricket in South Africa out of the financial ditch it has stumbled into could go down as the singular triumph of Raman’s career. If, of course, he does.
First published by Cricbuzz.
Bulletproof Truth 
A fascinating article highlighting the financial, operational and administrative challenges ahead for the new T20 League. The list of would be investors is impressive and SuperSport’s presence as the anchor broadcaster will be central to their continued interest in acquiring an equity stake in the League. But in order to avoid the mistakes of the past with the T20 Global League and the MSL, there needs to be full transparency and accountability about the ownership and management of the teams along with the overall governance of the League by CSA’s senior management and Board. Otherwise Corporate SA is not going to become involved with it given the disappointments of their past encounters with the the TGL and MSL.