The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchisee will make their presence felt in the soon-to-be-launched South Africa's T20 league.
The South Africa T20 league which starts in January 2023 had its bidding for the team ownership closed on July 13. According to a report in Cricbuzz the owners of six IPL teams have also expressed their interest in owning teams in South Africa's T20 league.
Mumbai Indians' owner Mukesh Ambani, N Srinivasan of Chennai Super Kings, Parth Jindal the managing director of JSW Cement which has stakes in Delhi Capitals, the Marans who own the Sun Group and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Sanjiv Goenka the chairman of RPSG Group which owns Lucknow Super Giants and venture capitalist Manoj Badale the owner of Rajasthan Royals are likely to own six of the proposed nine teams in the league.
According to the report the team owned by Reliance Group will be based out of Cape Town. Chennai Super Kings' owned team will have a home in Johannesburg, the JSW groups' team will have their base in Centurion, RPSG Group is likely to have their team based in Durban, the Sun Group would have Port Elizabeth as their home city while Badale could have his South African team in Paarl.
There is no news of the Knight Riders owning a team in the league. The Knight Riders, owned by actors Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, and Jay Mehta, own the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders and the Caribbean Premier League team Trinbago Knight Riders.
The league will have a window of January-February 2023. With the league being Cricket South Africa's focus, South Africa refused to travel to Australia in January to play a three-match ODI series so that the top South African players are available for the league.
The South African T20 league will clash with another upcoming T20 league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Interestingly, with three IPL franchises owning outfits in the UAE's six-team league. Out of the six franchises, five are Indian companies including Reliance Industries which owns Mumbai Indians, Shah Rukh Khan's Knight Riders Group, Delhi Capitals co-owners GMR, Adani Sportsline, and Capri Global apart from Lancer Capitals, a company belonging to Manchester United owners Glazer family.
First Published: Jul 19, 2022 12:21 PM IST
