As the coronavirus pandemic has made every aspect uncertain, Cricket South Africa(CSA) is also unassured of hosting their T20 league — Mzansi Super League (MSL) 2020. As per reports, the board will take the final call on the fate of the tournament by mid-August.
MSL is originally scheduled in the November-December window but with travel restrictions and other safety concerns, CSA might look to either postpone the league or explore other options.
As of now, in South Africa, 530K cases have been reported positive while 377K recovered so far. Also, 9298 deaths have been reported so far.
CSA waiting for the right time:
With the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases in other countries, CSA will announce the hosting the league after discussing on every aspect. Board also said that they would not do further preparations till there was clearance over travel restrictions.
“There is still a lot of uncertainty with the coronavirus pandemic and we need to be careful before we announce that something will happen and then we may have to postpone it,” ESPNcricinfo quoted CSA’s acting chief executive, Dr. Jacques Faul, as saying.
“To host the MSL, we probably need international travel to be permitted. And we can’t start looking for a sponsor or trying to secure a broadcaster until we know when we will be hosting it,” he added.
CSA has only hosted two editions of MSL. This year it will be the third edition of the league. Jozi Stars won the inaugural 2018 tournament but they failed to defend the trophy in the last edition. In MSL 2019, Faf du Plessis led Paarl Rocks to win the league after defeating Tshwane Spartans by eight wickets.
Meanwhile, BCCI has scheduled IPL 2020 in September-November in UAE. CSA had confirmed that they are ready to give No Objection Certificate (NoC) to Proteas players who are contractually bound with the IPL franchise. The league will kick start from 19 September and the grand finale will be played on 10th November.