Business of T20 Leagues: A carnival in the making, should SA and UAE get it right

IPL) trophies, three Champions League T20 trophies, followers in excess of 50 million on social media platforms across Twitter and Instagram, mass following across the world's largest cricket fanbase that's India, a healthy global diaspora to look at and television numbers crashing through the roof every single time these teams have walked out on the field. Put all these numbers together and crunch. Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Supergiants have taken to South Africa - by way of buying franchises in the country's upcoming T20 league - a cricket jamboree like none other anywhere in the world.

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A total of close to 25-plus cricketers are learned to have signed up for the T20 league being floated by Cricket South Africa (CSA) and scheduled to get underway in January next year.

They haven't just invested in franchises. What they've done, in fact, is taken years of self-taught experience in the running of cricket teams and cricketing ecosystems and offered it to South Africa on the platter. "Of course, they have a business to run. But imagine the volume of cricketing 'soft power' that has landed in the country. What it'll do to South Africa's cricketing future in years to come can be anybody's imagination running wild," a leading industry executive with heavy cricketing interests in Cape Town, tells TOI. As the game continues to get seduced by the shorter format and the business of leagues keep altering the course of the game around the world, South Africa's cricket economy has just received an enviable shot in the arm. What