Cricket lovers who enjoyed the Indian Premier League (IPL) on these shores in 2009 might just be in for a surprise when the Champions League makes its debut in South Africa in September.
There won’t be the hype, the outrageous billboard campaign or the sickly overkill, but what is, ostensibly, a domestic competition actually offers far more international skill and thrill than what is, ostensibly, an Indian tournament with guest appearances from a handful of international big names.
In the IPL, superstars are paid fat salaries whether they deliver or not. The majority of the rest of the squad are paid modest wages — whether they deliver or not. In the Champions League, featuring 10 teams from six countries, everybody is paid the same for turning up. And everybody shares in an extremely bountiful windfall if they succeed.
Well over half of the 150 players involved in the tournament will have their lives materially changed forever if they win and claim their share of the unprecedented $2-million prize at stake. In the case of the South African players involved, when the final sums are done, their franchises have taken their cut and their appearance money is added in, they could walk away with almost three-quarters of a million rands each. That’s R750 000 for those who prefer to see it in numbers.
“The incentive is enormous,” says South African Cricketers’ Association chief executive Tony Irish. “But that’s just the start of it. There would be other immediate kickbacks that could take earnings beyond a million and then there are the ‘shop-window’ opportunities which might lead to an IPL contract, or a contract in the English T20 League, or in Australia’s ‘Big Bash’ T20.
“The time has arrived when domestic ‘no-name’ cricketers can change their lives forever in the space of a few days, just like Louis Oosthuizen did by winning golf’s British Open at St Andrews.
A few years ago, brash and allegedly corrupt Texan millionaire Allen Stanford tried to inject some white-knuckle tension into the game with a poker-style winner-takes-all 2020 game between his team of West Indian All-Stars and England. It flopped because England’s players are all millionaires anyway and he was supposedly a crook.
This time it’s all above board and there are, among the host of big-name, familiar players, far more cricketers with a desperate desire to further their careers with teams many have grown up aspiring to play for.
The key to success
And therein lies the key to success. Cricket, for all its tendency towards individual performances, exacerbated by the 20-over format, remains a team game. And the best teams, rather than the best collection of individuals, invariably still win. It’s why the Eagles and Trinidad and Tobago did so well last year in the inaugural competition and it’s why it will be worth looking out for South Africa’s two teams this year, the Lions and the Warriors.
“I’ll be reminding my team what worked for us in the Standard Bank Pro20 which got us to this position, and that was playing as a team, as a unit, playing for the guy next to you,” said Lions skipper Alviro Petersen at the tournament’s official launch earlier this week.
After years of eating humble pie and rarely winning a game, let alone challenging for silverware, these are, indeed, uncharted waters for the Gautengers. They play IPL champions Mumbai Indians, South Australian Redbacks, Bangalore Royal Challengers and Guyana in Group B of the tournament, which starts on September 10.
“We were underdogs in the Pro20 and we’re underdogs here, but I’m happy when the team is written off; it makes us hungrier and means there is no pressure on us. Maybe we can set the cat among the pigeons again,” Petersen said. With three of the four games on home ground at the Wanderers, he might just be right.
A better bet, however, might be the Warriors, who won every game during the domestic tournament, including a clinically efficient final against the Lions. They have been shorn of the services of Jacques Kallis, however, as tournament rules stipulate that IPL teams have first “pick” on players who qualify for two teams. The Warriors do have to be compensated to the tune of $200 000, however - a handy windfall, surely, for a franchise that has struggled a little more than some others to make ends meet.
“I’d rather have Kallis — Bangalore are welcome to keep the cash if we can have Jacques,” said Warriors chief executive Dave Emslie. “We are ambitious; we want to win the tournament. The winners get $2-million, not $200 000!” Emslie said.
It wasn’t long ago that the Warriors shared the Lions’ reputation as under-achievers. Indeed, until last season — when the Warriors ended a decade-long trophy drought by collecting two within a couple of months — the two franchises had won fewer competitions than any of the others. But a strategic plan devised five years ago is now beginning to pay dividends and the Warriors are more likely to become perennial achievers in future rather than a one-season wonder.
Squads
Warriors: Davy Jacobs (captain), Ashwell Prince, Colin Ingram, Mark Boucher, Johan Botha, Nicky Boje, Craig Thyssen, Rusty Theron, Makhaya Ntini, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Justin Kreusch, Garnett Kruger, Arno Jacobs, Lyall Meyer, Jon Jon Smuts.
Lions: Alviro Petersen (captain), Thami Tsolekile, Craig Alexander, Shane Burger, Richard Cameron, Werner Coetsee, Cliffie Deacon, Zander de Bruyn, Robbie Frylinck, Neil McKenzie, Ethan O’Reilly, Aaran Phangiso, Jean Symes, Jonathan Vandiar, Vaughan van Jaarsveld.