Delhi Daredevils Owners And King Khan Goes International; Buys Team In South Africa’s T20 Global League

The owners of Indian Premier League franchises Kolkata Knight Ridders and Delhi Daredevils have bought a team each in South Africa’s new T20 Global League.

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and other co-owners of KKR took a Cape Town franchise. Their team is named Cape Town Knight Riders. Whereas, Daredevils owners GMR Group picked up the Johannesburg franchise name of which is still on hold.

Teams from Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Benoni, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Stellenbosch and Bloemfontein will be featured in the tournament.
Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle are the foreign players who have signed up for the tournament.

How is this different from the IPL?

The biggest difference is that the IPL has all Indian owners. The T20 Global League has owners from different parts of the world. It’s a mix and that’s why it’s called the Global League. There is a massive difference in the salary cap also. In T20 Global League the salary cap is around $1.5 million, whereas in the IPL a single player is bought for $1.5 million.

For Shah Rukh Khan, this will be his third team as part of the Knight Riders franchise. Shah Rukh Khan Said, “We want to grow the Knight Riders brand globally, and acquiring a team in T20 Global league is a step in that direction”.

“The South African league promises to be a great extravaganza and we are thankful to Cricket South Africa for making us part of the new phenomenon.” he added further.

The player draft will take place on August 19 and the eight-team event will be played in November-December this year. According to Cricket South Africa, close to 400 players from 10 countries will be a part of the player draft.
When asked if the approval of the Board of Control for Cricket in India was required, Dua said, “It’s not an Indian franchise going [there] and playing. It’s GMR Sports. One of our franchises is Delhi Daredevils. We want to build our sports business. Where’s the objection from anybody about that? This is not an extension of the Delhi Daredevils. We can invest wherever we want to.”

The eight official team owners are:
1. Shah Rukh Khan – Cape Town. Marquee South African player: JP Duminy
2. Fawad Rana – Durban. Marquee South African Player: Hashim Amla
3. GMR Group – Johannesburg. Marquee South African player: Kagiso Rabada
4. Javed Afridi – Benoni. Marquee South African Player: Quinton de Kock
5. Osman Osman – Pretoria. Marquee South African Player: AB de Villiers
6. Ajay Sethi – Port Elizabeth. Marquee South African Player: Imran Tahir
7. Mustaq Brey – Stellenbosch. Marquee South African Player: Faf du Plessis
8. Sushil Kumar – Bloemfontein. Marquee South African player: David Miller

By: Drishti Gupta