An opportunity for youngsters

It is not long now until the start of the competition that has gained more and more significance in each franchise’s calendar. Despite how much they might say that the other versions of the game are just as important, it is the Twenty20 that each one wishes they’d scoop.

When Cricket South Africa announced that there would be a seventh team introduced for the domestic T20 competition, I am sure that the news would have sent shudders through every single existing franchise as it means another challenger for the treasure chest that is qualification for the Champions League T20, which is normally played in India.

Also, it would mean some unknown players reducing everybody else’s chances at the big payday. Normally one would say "the more the merrier", but this is a case where I certainly feel that the players and their franchises will not see it that way.

I wonder to whom the money that normally would be allocated to the franchise for their participation after qualification, would go if the ‘extra’ team made it there.

It leads to a problem with regard to which players then are released by the existing franchises and made available to the new team. In thinking about making sure your chances are good, you do not want a case as a franchise, where one of the players on your books effectively knocks you out of the tournament or contributes to doing so.

Therefore you would definitely be tempted to just hang on to young talent which may well not make your team because they are lower down in the pecking order of selection.

Just how big each franchise squad will be is still to be seen, but the number 16 comes to mind for me and should suffice. However, what about the allowance for injuries to key players during the tournament? It may well happen that an established and senior player gets injured and is out of the tournament and needs to be replaced, and so the thought of back-up talent to the actual squad of 16. Not a bad thought if you are planning for every occurrence.

That situation, though, leads to a case where the best talent is not on show in the domestic competition because some of the youngsters are held back ‘legitimately’. There already is the need to wisely cover for the national players who will be on duty in New Zealand at the same time as the domestic T20 competition is taking place.

Which brings me to the issue of centrally or CSA contracted players. These contracts, I believe, are separate from the franchise operation and so can be taken as meaning that if squads of 16 are named, they might well not include the names of those that are on Cricket South Africa’s contracted players list.

For example, the likes of the Titans and the Cobras who have many national players, could have squads of 16 and also four or five national players (if they were to miss out on the New Zealand).

My hope is that the seventh team allows for some young players in the South African cricket system to be a part of the glitz, glamour and razzmatazz that all Twenty20 competitions have become in all systems around the cricketing world.

Whilst I am of the opinion that cricketers best learn the game from the long version and then adjust to the shorter and faster versions, I think that playing in front of good crowds under pressure would afford young players an opportunity to experience and deal with weighty expectation in a tournament such as the Twenty20 challenge.

I do hope that it is a well thought-out scenario that does not spurn the chance to develop a few more youngsters and set them on the road to the national team.