Johannesburg: Haroon Lorgat, now the CEO of Cricket South Africa, has worn many hats in cricket administration — the most distinguished one being that of the International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive. A day after launching T20 Global League, which will be held in November-December in South Africa this year, Lorgat outlined his plans for the league and the game at large in a wideranging exclusive interview with Gulf News.
Following are the excerpts:
How different will be your league from other T20 leagues in the world and what is your take on the various T20 league of other countries today?
The leagues are good, Indian Premier League (IPL) is phenomenal, Big Bash is doing good and also Caribbean Premier League (CPL). But we have to recognise that we have got domestically some of the best players. If you look at the rankings of the players, we have got No. 1 in batting and bowling.
These players have never played each other in our own country. We will also be attracting some of the best international players. So what is different we would like to have is the quality of cricket. We want to focus on the cricket first. If you look at the name of the league, if you look at the way we styled it, we are looking at a premier cricket competition and hopefully the best in the world. Alongside that, there will be entertainment. Not the other way round.
Do you think it will have a huge viewership in Middle East and has anyone from this region shown interest to own a team?
From what I recall in the past, there is a great following in the Middle East for South African cricket. When I was there [in Dubai as ICC chief executive] I have seen people following [South Africa’s] our old Ram Slam on the screen in restaurants and pubs. So I expect there will be very good following in the Middle East. Regarding ownership, there would be owners from the Middle East, Americas and South Africa. The process that we are going through will finally determine the owners.
Will players from associate countries be considered to play in your league?
Their players will be welcome to come and play in the league. We have opened up a register where players must put their names forward. I don’t know what the list is but I expect there would be players from the associate member countries also that will express the interest and if team owners pick them up they will play.
South African has a formidable team in the ongoing Champions Trophy and if they can win it, do you think the impact will be huge on the league?
For any country that wins a global ICC event, it is a huge boost. If we play well and we get to the end it will be a great fillip for this event.
Do you think South African limited overs team and the Test team’s performance will improve with this league?
I think even the domestic cricket and certainly international cricket will improve because now you have got a league that is playing at that level. Such a high level where everybody’s game rises and it has been shown in all the other leagues it has happened. I mean in any sport for that matter it has happened. I remember when I was young you played tennis, table tennis, they will tell you will only get better if you play it with somebody who is better than you. You can’t keep on winning somebody and expect to improve your game. Yes I think the standard of cricket will improve.
Have you spoken to the ICC for a window for your league where international matches would be less?
We don’t think it is right to go and create a window where others should be entitled to play. This is our domestic window.
What is the possibility of Indian players to play in the league? How much does India figure in this league’s popularity which has a huge market there?
It goes without saying that if the Indian players were available to play in this league it would elevate the profile of the league. The Indian fans would fall in love with it and they already love the South African players. There is a big following for the South African players in India add the Indian players to it you can see how much better that could be.
There is a tendency of players to succumb to corruption in this format. What sort of controls are you going to put in place for that?
We certainly have a zero-tolerance approach to it. We have brought all of those players to the book and the same we will apply it — whether it’s in the T20 league or other domestic leagues in South Africa. We will also call upon the ICC to help us, which we have already done. So we will build our anti-corruption capacity to make sure we will monitor the league. We want a quality league and you can’t have a quality league if you haven’t got the checks and the balances.
