Fans look on during the SA20 match between Sunrisers Eastern Cape and the Pretoria Capitals in Gqeberha. Picture: SA20/Sportzpics/Gallo Images
Throngs of real, live spectators packed the premises in numbers not seen for years at Kingsmead and St George’s Park, and even if Newlands was not totally full on opening night, the new SA20 league has certainly enjoyed a successful start and seems to be capturing the interest of cricket fans.
T20 leagues are always accompanied by hype and hyperbole, but they succeed or fail on the strength of the cricket and the quality of the players involved. Getting such brilliant international cricketers involved in the SA20 certainly ticks that box, as was the insistence that the Proteas form a strong base for the franchises.
Although the opening match between MI Cape Town and the Paarl Royals was not the close thriller league commissioner Graeme Smith and his fellow organisers might have wanted, the quality of cricket on display was truly impressive and exciting. It was 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 unleashed a truly international-class attack, even with Kagiso Rabada resting after his return from Australia. Jofra Archer showed what a brilliant fast bowler he is, and Olly Stone, Rashid Khan and Sam Curran were all highly impressive as well.
And then it was fantastic to see two young South Africans batting so brilliantly in Dewald Brevis, a prodigious talent for sure, and Ryan Rickelton, in such dominant form at the moment, as they raced the hosts to victory.
Another young local, Donovan Ferreira, then took Joburg Super Kings to victory over Durban’s Super Giants, batting magnificently to engineer a dramatic comeback with explosive West Indian Romario Shepherd, and then producing a superb spell of spin bowling that included the key wicket of Quinton de Kock to stymie the home side’s chase.
Englishman Phil Salt announced himself to South African fans with an innings of real quality that led the Pretoria Capitals to victory over the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, but it was the magnificent fast bowling of Anrich Nortje that is going to live long in the memory.
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Victories at the coast for the two Highveld teams are going to be invaluable as the competition progresses, one feels.
MI Cape Town are certainly genuine contenders though, with Pretoria Capitals and Joburg Super Kings making impressive starts as well. But the tournament is still young and much could change.
While the in-stadium experience so far seems to be ticking all the boxes, the televised product is just as important. One can forgive the SuperSport commentators for maybe being a little too excited for the opening game at Newlands, and the right tone has been struck since then, allowing the bona fides of the action and the authentic nature of the cricketing skills on display to take centre stage.
Given what happened in 2009 when the IPL was hosted in South Africa and it felt like our cricket stadiums had been invaded by a colonising force, it has also been heartening to discover the mood is very different this time. A polite enquiry as to how the relationship between the franchise owners and the provincial hosts is going is invariably met with glowing reference to a collaborative approach, an eagerness to include local skills and knowledge, and warm personal interaction.
In all of this, Smith deserves enormous credit. He might just have saved South African cricket, putting aside the understandable hurt caused to him by Cricket South Africa and their inquest into whether he was racist or not.
His willingness to get back on the horse for the greater good of the game is true leadership, but typical of the Proteas’ greatest captain.
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