JOHANNESBURG: Watching cricket in South Africa can be a unique experience. Not many countries can offer grass banks, brass bands, capacity crowds jiving to live music, kids getting to play ball in the outfield during breaks and beer always on tap at the same time.
The SA20 has nailed this experience. No wonder, then, that crowds have returned to cricket grounds up and down the country. In terms of its age, the SA20 is a baby when compared to some of the more established franchise systems like the IPL, PSL, BBL or the CPL.
But Graeme Smith, the SA20's commissioner, couldn't be happier with how the first three seasons have gone (the final of the third edition will happen at the Wanderers on Saturday). "Everything we wanted to achieve, the initial goals, we were quite open and honest," he says in an interaction to select media two days out from the final. "We wanted to be the biggest league outside of the IPL, we wanted to revive the cricket fan and attract new fans in South Africa and we wanted to provide the best players in South Africa and around the world (the platform) to come and play and I think every year that has got better from a cricket perspective. It's been very competitive and I think we have achieved all those other goals as well."
Only a few short years ago, South African cricket was having a crisis of confidence. It was about 'finding its identity again' a bit, in the words of AB de Villiers, 'as a lot of the players had moved on'.
Here's Smith who got intimate when asked if cricket crowds had dwindled in the immediate aftermath of Covid. "There was," he says. "I think cricket had gone through a tough time. Domestic cricket support had gone down, the national team wasn't performing as well as in the past and there were administration issues in South African cricket at the time so people had lost confidence. Also, rugby started to be really successful. From our perspective, one of the big goals was to see cricket fans come back but also introduce new people to cricket. Walking around stadiums now... the amount of people who have watched cricket now for the first time, it's amazing."
De Villiers, one of the country's greatest to have held a bat, also referenced the 'dip' South African cricket was going through. "It (SA20) came at a time when people were hungry to see quality cricket," De Villiers, who is on the tournament's commentary panel, says. "I think South Africans love the outdoors and around December, January and February... It's the best time, weather wise. We love our sports. The timing of this tournament is spot on as South African cricket was going through a bit of a dip. There were some structural changes in the board, now there's a bit of consistency."
Smith still remembers that first season of the SA20 when 'I was employing people two months out from the tournament. "There was so much (going on," he says. "If I think about it, I was employing people two months out from the tournament (smiles). You have the six franchises, you have had the auction and you are signing people to run the event. That first season was hopefully getting the fans to come back to the game and seeing really competitive cricket. When we finished that season, it was incredible. Once we nailed it, it was about establishing ourselves and getting to grow and we have managed to do that in the next two years."
On Saturday, when MI Cape Town and Sunrisers Eastern Cape battle, they will do so in front of a sold out house.
The writer is in South Africa at the invitation of SA20