The owners of Indian Premier League franchises Kolkata Knight Ridders and Delhi Daredevils have bought a team each in South Africa’s new T20 Global League.
Actor Shah Rukh Khan and the co-owners of KKR took up the Cape Town franchise. Their team will be called Cape Town Knight Riders, reported PTI.
Daredevils owners GMR Group picked up the Johannesburg franchise, which is still to be named. Kagiso Rabada and JP Duminy will be the marquee players for Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively.
Teams from Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Benoni, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Stellenbosch and Bloemfontein will feature in the tournament. Foreign players who have signed up for the league include Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle.
The player draft will take place on August 19 and the eight-team event will be played in November-December this year. According to Cricket South Africa, close to 400 players from 10 countries will be a part of the player draft.
How is this different from the IPL?
“The biggest difference is that the IPL has all Indian owners,” Delhi Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua told The Indian Express. “The T20 Global League has owners from different parts of the world. It’s a mix and that’s why it’s called the Global League. Also, there’s a massive difference in the salary cap. Here the salary cap is around $1.5 million, whereas in the IPL you buy one player for $1.5 million.”
When asked if the approval of the Board of Control for Cricket in India was required, Dua said, “It’s not an Indian franchise going [there] and playing. It’s GMR Sports. One of our franchises is Delhi Daredevils. We want to build our sports business. Where’s the objection from anybody about that? This is not an extension of the Delhi Daredevils. We can invest wherever we want to.”
Knight Riders continue to expand
For Shah Rukh Khan, this will be his third team as part of the Knight Riders franchise. They also own Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League.
“We want to grow the Knight Riders brand globally, and acquiring a team in T20 Global league is a step in that direction,” Shah Rukh Khan was quoted as saying. “The South African league promises to be a great extravaganza and we are thankful to Cricket South Africa for making us part of the new phenomenon.”
The eight official team owners are:
- Shah Rukh Khan – Cape Town. Marquee South African player: JP Duminy
- Fawad Rana – Durban. Marquee South African player: Hashim Amla
- GMR Group – Johannesburg. Marquee South African player: Kagiso Rabada
- Javed Afridi – Benoni. Marquee South African player: Quinton de Kock
- Osman Osman – Pretoria. Marquee South African player: AB de Villiers
- Ajay Sethi – Port Elizabeth. Marquee South African player: Imran Tahir
- Mustaq Brey – Stellenbosch. Marquee South African player: Faf du Plessis
- Sushil Kumar – Bloemfontein. Marquee South African player: David Miller