SA20 is a

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

franchise

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

tournament in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, organised by

Cricket South Africa Cricket South Africa (CSA) is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South Afr ...

(CSA) and first contested in 2023. It is contested by six teams based in cities around the country. The first winners of the tournament were Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

History

Cricket South Africa established the franchise

T20 Global League The Mzansi Super League (MSL) was a Twenty20 cricket (T20) franchise league held in South Africa. The competition was established in 2018 by Cricket South Africa (CSA) as a replacement for the failed T20 Global League, but only two editions wer ...

in 2017. The inaugural season was deferred by a year due to the lack of a broadcast deal and title sponsor and in June 2018 was replaced by the Mzansi Super League, a league featuring six CSA-owned teams. Both the leagues became unsuccessful. The MSL ran for only two seasons, the 2020 and 2021 editions being cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. SA20 was established by CSA in 2022 through a newly formed entity, Africa Cricket Development (Pty) Limited (ACD). CSA is the majority stakeholder in ACD with a 50% share, while broadcaster SuperSport has a 30% share and former

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

(IPL) Chief Operating Officer Sundar Raman, the remaining 20%. All six of the teams were bought by franchises from the IPL. In July 2022, CSA announced that the One Day International series against Australia due to be played in January 2023 would be cancelled in order for SA20 to go ahead. In August 2022,

Graeme Smith Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the national team, taking over from Shaun Pollock. He held t ...

was announced as the commissioner for the tournament. Later in the month, the marquee players for the first season were announced.

Organisation

The six teams play each other twice in the group stages of the competition before the top four sides move to the semi-final stages. Teams acquire players through an auction as opposed to a draft, making it the second cricket league in the world after the

to do so. Each team purchases a squad of 17 players, with the opportunity of signing up to five players prior to the auction: three international players; one South African international player; and one uncapped South African player.

Teams

The six teams are all owned by existing Indian Premier League franchise owners.

Tournament season and results

Teams' performances

* C: champions * RU: runner-up * SF or PO: team qualified for the semi-final stage of the competition

Records and statistics

^{''Last updated on 30 January 2023''}

Broadcasting

SuperSport,

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

and the Sports18 network broadcast the tournament in South Africa, the United Kingdom and India respectively. , Betway SA20 and Sky Sports have a five-year contract to broadcast the T20 cricket league.

List of broadcasters

References

External links

* SA20 2024 Schedul

* {{Twenty20 leagues , state=collapsed Cricket in South Africa Twenty20 cricket leagues South African domestic cricket competitions Sports leagues established in 2022 Professional cricket leagues Cricket leagues in South Africa SA20