South Africa’s domestic twenty-over competition will revert to six teams next season.
The decision was ratified by Cricket SA’s Board at their quarterly meeting in Johannesburg on Saturday after an experiment with a seventh team did not produce the desired results.
“It was a good idea but not all good ideas pan out to be that successful,” said CSA’s acting CEO Jacques Faul after the meeting.
The objective of the extra team was to give fringe players, not making their franchise side, a chance to play in the same competition.
“The Cricket Committee felt it didn’t really serve that purpose,” Faul said.
“If you work it out, there are 12 people involved in a match but the franchises held onto the five next-best players as well, so it ended up taking over a hundred players out of the system before selecting a seventh team.
“Hence, they didn’t do all that well and we felt it didn’t help us.”
An independent committee will be appointed to investigate the benefits of a 12- team domestic T20 competition for the future.
“It’s very early stages and a lot of formats are being debated,” Faul said.
“Should there be a top tier/bottom tier? Should all of them play in one T20 competition? The committee will have to investigate it - not just strength versus strength but also the commercial effect of such a decision.
“It can get very emotional and it’s only fair to review it and see where we can go with this. But for this season it will be unchanged.” – Sapa