CAPE TOWN - The Bloem City Blazers have expressed their commitment to being part of the Global T20 League in 2018 despite the fallout of the maiden edition’s postponement this week.
Following a hastily arranged teleconference on Tuesday morning, CSA were forced to postpone it’s much-hyped T20 tournament until 2018 due to cost implications pushing up to R82-million and R109-million per year, even though acting chief executive Thabang Moroe admitted at a later press briefing that there were owners who were disappointed by the board’s decision.
“We must consider everyone involved, not just the owners,” Moroe said.
But City Blazers owner Sushil Kumar, a Hong Kong-based businessman, believed that although his franchise is currently experiencing “mixed feelings”, the postponement could be the best thing for the T20 Global League going forward.
“On one hand, there is a sense of disappointment. We, along with our fans, were looking forward to the tournament and our preparations were going ahead at full steam and taking promising shape,” Kumar said in a statement on Wednesday.
“On the other hand, there is also a sense of relief. We will now have time to have clarity on the broadcast and sponsorship rights (for both the League and the teams), which have been unconfirmed. With less than a month to go before the tournament, the only concerns were related to the broadcast footprint and league sponsorship, which in turn affected the team sponsorship efforts.”
Kumur stressed that at no point will he be turning his back on the Global T20 League and his new “second home’’ Bloemfontein.
“We remain committed to the T20 Global League just as we were three months ago. We will be working towards the first edition scheduled for November 2018 with renewed vigour and enthusiasm,” he stated.
“It also goes without saying that our commitment towards development at grassroots and schools level, transformation through performance and all investments towards the Mangaung Municipality are intact. We will continue to channel our strategy and efforts to bringing Bloemfontein and the Free State on the world cricketing map. It will also be our endeavour to work closely with our partners and stakeholders at the Mangaung Oval and Mangaung Municipality to achieve the above.
“South Africa has become our home, we are not going anywhere. We will continue to be a part of Bloem and the T20 Global League, which we have full faith will be a success,” he added.