Real and live crowds packed the venue in numbers not seen for years at Kingsmead and St George’s Park, and although Newlands wasn’t full on opening night, the new SA20 league has certainly enjoyed a successful start and looks set to catch on. interest of cricket fans. T20 leagues are always accompanied by hype and hyperbole, but they succeed or fail on the strength of cricket and the quality of players involved. Bringing together some fantastic international cricketers in the SA20 certainly ticks the box, just like if the Proteas form…
Real and live crowds packed the venue in numbers not seen for years at Kingsmead and St George’s Park, and although Newlands wasn’t full on opening night, the new SA20 league has certainly enjoyed a successful start and looks set to catch on. interest of cricket fans.
T20 leagues are always accompanied by hype and hyperbole, but they succeed or fail on the strength of cricket and the quality of players involved. Doing excellent international cricket in the SA20 certainly ticks the box, as the Proteas hope to form a strong base for the franchise.
Although the opening match between MI Cape Town and Paarl Royals was not the close thriller league commissioner Graeme Smith and his fellow organizers had hoped for, the quality of cricket on display was impressive and entertaining. It is more than enough entertainment.
T20 World Cup winning captain Jos Buttler showed his class, as did David Miller, for the losing Royals. MI Cape Town launched an international-class attack, although Kagiso Rabada was rested after returning from Australia. Jofra Archer showed that he is a fast bowler, and Olly Stone, Rashid Khan and Sam Curran were also excellent.
Young talent
Then it was fantastic to see two young South Africans batting so brilliantly in Dewald Brevis, a prodigious talent of course, and Ryan Rickelton, in such dominant form at the moment, they are racing the hosts to victory.
Another young local, Donovan Ferreira, then took the Joburg Super Kings to victory over the Durban Super Giants, batting superbly to engineer a dramatic comeback with West Indian Romario Shepherd’s burst, and then produced the best spell of bowling that included the key wicket of Quinton de Kock to stymie front home.
Englishman Phil Salt announced himself to South African fans with an innings of real quality that led Pretoria Capitals to victory over Eastern Cape Sunrisers, but Anrich Nortje’s very fast bowling is going to live long in the memory.
READ ALSO: Parnell gave thumbs up for Capitals’ opening SA20 performance
Victory on the coast for both Highveld teams will be invaluable as the competition progresses, one feels.
MI Cape Town are certainly genuine contenders, with Pretoria Capitals and Joburg Super Kings also making impressive starts. But the tournament is still young and a lot can change.
While the in-stadium experience so far seems to tick all the boxes, the television product is also important. One could forgive the SuperSport commentators for perhaps being too excited for the opening game at Newlands, and the right tone has been maintained since then, allowing the bonafides and genuine nature of the cricketing skills on display to take center stage. stage.
Collaborative approach
Given what happened in 2009 when the IPL was held in South Africa and it felt like our cricket stadiums had been invaded by occupying forces, it was also heartening to find a very different mood this time around. A polite question about how the relationship between the franchise owner and the host province is always met with encouraging references to a collaborative approach, eagerness to include local skills and knowledge, and warm personal interactions.
In all of this, Smith deserves enormous credit. He can only save South African cricket, take away the understandable pain caused by Cricket South Africa and find out if he is racist or not.
His desire to get back on the horse for the better of the game is true leadership, but typical of most captains of the Proteas.