Where’s the money going to come from to sustain 15 domestic cricket teams?

Between Christmas and New Year – perhaps in a planned move to escape scrutiny – Cricket South Africa’s Members Council made a final decision to do away with the franchise system and instead implement a 15-team, two-division domestic structure.

It was certainly a contentious decision but the majority won out, which is hardly a surprise because there are only six franchises and nine other provinces and they were always going to vote in their own self-interest for a place at the top table.

Cricket South Africa is a federation that is under enormous financial stress, which the Covid-19 pandemic is only making worse, so the fact that they should be expanding when most people would suggest they tighten their belts is a move that defies logic in many ways. A shrinking pie now has 15 mouths to feed instead of just six.

Where exactly the money is going to come from to ensure all 15 teams, especially teams seven and eight that will be “promoted” to the premier division, are competitive is a major concern for me and for other provincial presidents I have spoken to. A commission set up a few years ago by CSA, when their financial outlook was much rosier than today, found that the system could only support a maximum of eight fully professional teams.

My other concern is that the Proteas are in a definite state of rebuilding, making it even more vital that there is a top-class domestic pipeline feeding them battle-hardened cricketers whose skills and temperament have been properly tested by strength-versus-strength cricket.

CSA’s statement announcing the domestic restructuring said they had “resolved to accept the recommendations of the David Richardson Task Team”, which makes it sound like there was just a single proposal put before the Members Council. Which is not true.

Richardson himself offered various scenarios while it is known that the South African Cricketers’ Association, the players’ union, presented numerous different models for consideration.

It seems, speaking to those who support the restructuring, that the extra teams will be encouraged to become more self-sufficient by seeking out their own sponsors. While this is a noble ideal, in reality this is pie in the sky. CSA used to have a dozen or so generous sponsors but since the economic downturn and their own almost total loss of reputation, that has dwindled down to a single-digit figure.

As one provincial president said to me: “One of the questions most asked is where is the money going to come from? Which sponsor is going to come in with lots of money during Covid and considering the current state of CSA? The affiliates are already struggling as we speak so are CSA going to have to subsidise everything? There were meant to be two T20 tournaments that were going to make a lot of money, there was the assumption that sponsors would pick up on those and pour money in, but they didn’t.”

But another provincial president says the affiliates will definitely be better off.

“It looks like there will be decent funds distributed and the affiliates will be a lot better off. We will still get money and top-up grants from CSA and I think it might work out really well. Some of the non-franchise teams already have good sponsors. And a certain amount of the money that was being spent on the franchises will be spread between the teams because there is no longer duplication of jobs when it comes to coaches and physios,” that president says.

But the expenses involved in running a professional cricket team are not small. The daily rate to run a stadium these days is about R50 000, while CSA only pay a hosting fee of R15 000 a day. The average cost to put on a single T20 match is R168 000. Even the bigger franchises are already considering retrenchments and I cannot see teams based in places like East London, Kimberley or Pietermaritzburg being able to compete on a level footing simply because the economies in those areas are really struggling. Life is a grind in those places for the majority of the population. And leading players and coaches are not going to gravitate towards those minor centres without big inducements.

Yes, it is good that there will be more playing opportunities for our professional cricketers – apart from the 70 who will lose their jobs because of this restructuring – but will those cricketers based in the smaller centres be playing competitively with the big guns: Central Gauteng, Northerns, KZN Coastal and Western Province?

Let’s hope that CSA get the right outcome from a decision almost certainly made for the wrong reasons.

Ken Borland

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