Legendary South Africa captain Graeme Smith admitted that no franchise cricket league in the world can compete with the Indian Premier League. Smith has been appointed the commissioner for South Africa’s new franchise league tournament SA20. The rise of the Indian Premier League has been phenomenal since its inception and it has set a huge benchmark for other countries’ leagues which is quite difficult to achieve.
Interestingly, the SA20 league has a very close connection with IPL but not directly as six teams Durban’s Super Giants, Jo’burg Super Kings, MI Cape Town, Paarl Royals, Pretoria Capitals, and Sunrisers Eastern Cape are owned by Indian Premier League franchise owners.
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Smith, who has played and did commentary stints in IPL, said the rise of the cash-rich league in India is mental and no other franchise tournament can compete with it at the moment.
“We never get rival with IPL. Let’s just put that out there I think no one’s going to compete with that. I mean what it’s done in 15 years is mental, it’s brilliant. And having been a part of it as a player and on the media side I love being there It’s incredible for the game and how it’s changed people’s lives as well. I’ll never forget that first auction I think I was on tour in Bangladesh. When it unfolded no one knew what to expect arriving here and that final, trying to get into that state of it, it was incredible," Smith told CricketNext during an interaction with K Srinivas Rao and Shivani Gupta.
The former captain suggested that the time zones and the cricketing culture will help SA20 to revive South African cricket which has not been at its best in recent times.
“I truly believe that we have an opportunity in South Africa. We put on time zones, the cricketing culture, the fan base that’s what needing to be revived that loves the game. The natural talent that we produce and lucky to produce. I think we have an opportunity with the type of partners that we’ve attracted to really build the biggest league outside India. I think we truly have that opportunity and it’s in our hands an hopefully people will tune in and enjoy it," Smith added.
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