CSA T20 Challenge 2024 – fixtures, teams, venues – everything you need to know
©CSA T20 Challenge
For 32 days in January and February, South Africans didn’t blink without being reminded that SA20 was upon them, which the cricket lovers among us already knew. There was no way to withdraw from the second edition of the tournament until after the final. It was as dense as the air we breathed.
How many of these people know that another T20 tournament is starting in the country on Friday? Those who don’t should be forgiven, as the first division of the men’s CSA T20 Challenge is not in the same league as the hugely successful SA20 in every way.
The foreign stars who graced SA20 are gone. The raucous anticipation is also over. The names of the Challenge teams do not glitter with the gold dust of the IPL, and the tournament’s media and marketing presence is negligible. The mood is much better. And this is only at the surface level.
During SA20, spectators can win the equivalent of USD 107,000 for taking a clean, one-handed catch on any of the six grounds used. Challenge games will be held at eight grounds, but only three of them—the Wanderers, Centurion, and Kingsmead—will offer prizes for fans to claim catches, and none are as attractive as the hanging grounds in the SA20.
All 34 games of the SA20 were broadcast live on television, although viewers were limited to SuperSport’s pay channels. Less than half of the Challenge matches – 25 out of 58 – will have similar exposure. Part of that difference comes down to logistics. None of the SA20 games were played simultaneously, while the Challenge featured four matches a day and only two days of standalone games.
| CSA T20 Challenge Round | Played | Win | Loss | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titans | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dolphins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Western Province | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Boland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| North West Dragons | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Warriors | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AET Tuskers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The 33 games that will not be broadcast will be streamed online, unlikely to stop them from falling out of sight and mind. Bearing in mind that the cost of data in South Africa is exponentially higher than in many other countries – on average 11 times higher than India, five times higher than the amount Australians pay, and higher than the UK Very few people who don’t do this will be able to gain access to WiFi networks – almost three times more.
The Challenge suffers from not being able to hide its affiliation with CSA, not only because – like most of South Africa’s domestic competitions – it has no title sponsor. The SA20, which is heavily sponsored, is also a CSA product but is not recognized as such. Its franchises are Indian-owned and it is operated independently from other CSA events. This means that it enjoys a level of integrity in the public mind that challenges do not.
When South Africans think of the SA20, the first name that comes to mind is Graeme Smith, who has become the epitome of administrative excellence in his role as commissioner of the league. When South Africans think of other CSA competitions they picture inept players who wouldn’t know a bouncer from the boundary.
33 games of the CSA T20 Challenge will not be broadcast but will be available online. ©Getty
How much of that approach is motivated by racism – unlike SA20, the challenge is subordinated to CSA’s transformation goals – and how much by the fact that previous incarnations of CSA’s board and senior executives have indeed proven themselves incompetent, remains to be seen. hard to understand.
But we’ll find out when the grounds open on Friday evening whether the South Africans are eager to get more of what SA20 has given them, even if in a lighter form. Who wouldn’t want to see Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi, Reeza Hendricks, Nandre Berger, Rassie van der Dussen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Tristan Stubbs and Anrich Nortje in the next 52 days? Or see if Dewald Brevis can live up to the hype? Or find out if this year’s Under-19 World Cup stars Kwena Mfaka and Steve Stoke can cut it at senior level?
Should crowds draw anything like the numbers drawn by SA20, domestic cricket in this country—especially in the most accessible format—will have turned a corner. If they don’t, some people who go to games at Wanderers, Centurion, and Kingsmead won’t be unhappy. Because if the population in the grassland is small, then it is easy to make a clean catch with one hand. Cynic? Welcome to South African cricket.
