SA20 establishing itself as No 2 league, schedule clashes not expected going ahead: Graeme Smith

SA20 has begun establishing itself as the No 2 league in the world and there will be better schedules drawn up to avoid clashes with international cricket for South African players, says league commissioner Graeme Smith.

In order to avoid any clashin schedule which the league faced in the first two editions, the third iteration of the South African T20 league will start a few days after the conclusion of the New Year’s Test.

The third season will also feature Dinesh Karthik, who is the first Indian player in the leauge.

“Our ambition, it doesn't sound right to say (that) you want to be the No 2 league in the world, but being realistic, IPL is just incredible. It's a beast. It's been the driving force for a lot of change in the cricketing landscape,” Smith told media on SA20 India Day.

“We've been fortunate to attract six franchises from the IPL to work with the BCCI in terms of developing SA20 and learning from what they've done very well over the years.”

“For us, two seasons in, the stats, the viewership, the digital stats, the crowd attendance is all starting to show that we are the No 2 league,” he said.

Smith said working closely with Cricket South Africa will avoid situations in the past such as in February this year when seven uncapped players were sent for a Test tour to New Zealand and other frontline players held back for SA20.

“In the beginning, there were some hard choices for Cricket South Africa to make when they were building their league. There's a lot of bilateral cricket that also just comes and goes without context. They needed to make a tough decision to invest in the league and to make the best players available and to make a success of it,” he said.

“Now we are going into season 3, we're starting to manage the FTPs better, working with Cricket South Africa in terms of the structure around, so the New Year's Test match will happen and then SA20 will kick off after that.”

“Into the new cycle, it gets a little bit easier to manage these, from a scheduling perspective. But the best players are always available for SA20,” he said.

Karthik, who will play for Paarl Royals and is also the league's India ambassador, said SA20 came across as the best competition for him to participate in after he retired from all formats earlier this year.

“When I actually finished playing with IPL, I wanted to play some cricket, I'm not going to lie. I was thinking, what were the options? Now, how do I find out? I've never been part of any (other) league,” he said.

“I asked players who've been part of other leagues and the one thing that came out very strongly, almost unanimously, was the fact that the SA20 was the best held tournament, the most exciting tournament.”

“It's got the most interesting rivalries as well because of the domestic setup. You put everything together and the answer was pretty straightforward for me. I was very keen on playing this tournament. The offer came through from Royals and I couldn't say no,” he added.

Both Smith and Karthik agreed that expansion of shorter white-ball formats and leagues have impacted the players’ techniques and temperaments at the highest level.

“If I think back to the way I grew up, it was all about, developing your game to play Test cricket and then you would adapt to ODI cricket. Now, players are thinking about power. Technically, they're set up differently and they probably then have to grow and develop into the Test format,” he said.

“It has just flipped in terms of the way that batters are developing now. They're growing up thinking about playing white-ball cricket and then they've then got to develop the technique,” he said.

Karthik said, “Cricket as a sport is in transition where you will slowly but steadily start getting Test match specialists and T20/white-ball specialists. It is going to happen. The demarcation is happening as we speak.”

Former South Africa wicketkeeper-batter and SA20 ambassador Mark Boucher said coaches too have adapted to the demands of white-ball expansion.

“The game moves quicker during different sessions now, I don't think it's really a technical thing, you're still going to get your technicians, your red-ball specialists, but coaches are actually adapting as well and they're giving players more licence to go play at their natural game,” he said.

“You look at a couple of players around the world who are going out there, and coaches like Brendon McCullum, who says 'if you want to get the first ball out (of) the ground, if that's going to be the best version of yourself, then go do it'.”

“Things like reverse sweeps, in the past, if I would have gone out reverse sweeping and went to my captain, he probably would have pushed me in a different direction from a change-room perspective, but nowadays it's a natural shot that comes to these guys,” he said.