No transformation targets in Global T20 league
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No transformation targets in Global T20
league
Cricket
South Africa has confirmed there will be no transformation targets in the
Global T20 league. However, the board added that all eight franchise owners
have been made mindful of its commitment to change.
CSA has a strict
policy in the current domestic set-up which requires franchises to field six
players of colour - including at least three black Africans - per game. The
Global T20 league has been exempt from this stipulation, though it will still
be expected to support the transformation agenda.
"We haven't got
targets specifically but we've got the whole transformation philosophy in the
prospectus," Haroon Lorgat, the CSA chief executive, said. "We asked
the owners to be very mindful of what we're trying to drive as a key pillar
within CSA. And in the seventh year we've got a review, which has got key
performance indicators, and we reserve the right - in that seventh year - if
they're not contributing along the lines of what we identify, and
transformation is one of them, to cancel the licence."
The eight owners, six
of them foreign, that have bought into the Global T20 league have been awarded
licenses of 10 years each. They were among several bidders who had to present
CSA with detailed ownership plans in line with the prospectus they had been
given. That prospectus included an important commitment to development of the
South African game, which Lorgat expanded on.
"One of the
obligations that they've got is to adopt a hub," he said. "They've
got to fund a hub. It's a commitment that they've got to make every year in
their area. So that's eight hubs that will get picked up immediately. You're
entitled to take more, but minimum one hub you've got to take. And if I think
of some of the presentations or proposals we received, if they do what they're
doing in their respective countries - if they repeat it here - they'll take on
many more than one hub."
Hubs, which were
established in 2014 alongside Regional Performance Centres, are aimed at
previously disadvantaged communities and areas and seek to develop the game
through qualified coaching and improved facilities. The hubs work with schools
and clubs, provide equipment and a dedicated cricket programme. There are
currently 63 hubs around the country and at least eight of them will benefit
from the new T20 tournament.
Haroon
Lorgat on transformation: 'We asked the owners to be very mindful of what we're
trying to drive as a key pillar within CSA'
Lorgat believes the
franchise owners - two from South Africa, two from India, two from Pakistan,
one from Hong Kong and one from Dubai - are all committed to the board's cause.
"In South Africa we're all about transforming the landscape, be it cricket
or be it the economy, and they are very aware of that. It's amazing - in some
of the very countries that these owners come from they're challenged with
similar [issues] - it may not be a black-white transformation. But it's about
developing and going into areas where they can grow the game. I've no doubt we're
going to learn from some of them, just as much as they're going to be learning
from what we're doing."
Lorgat
singled out Javed Afridi and Fawad Rana, who run the Peshawar and Lahore
franchises in the Pakistan Super League, as being particularly attuned to South
Africa's needs. Afridi confirmed at the event where all the owners were
announced that he would be extending the Zalmi foundation's
activities to South Africa.
"What's probably
more relevant is the kind of passion we saw from particularly the Pakistan
owners," Lorgat said. "They're doing some phenomenal development in
their respective franchises in Pakistan. They've committed to bringing a lot of
that into South Africa. I can see a lot of cross-pollination coming that will
aid the development of the game."
Still, the issue of
the lack of targets will raise concerns that the players CSA has been trying to
provide sustainable opportunities to at the top level could lose out. Lorgat
said he was confident the players of colour in South Africa would do as well as
any other players in the draft, which takes place on August 19, but he could
not deny that quotas do not sit easily with the corporate world no matter how
high its community priorities.
"These are
business people," he said. "Cricket is what they're primarily going
for but they look beyond that. Some of them have already engaged with mayors in
a city and started to talk about development plans and programmes - more than
cricket."