Mumbai owners have revealed the name of the recently acquired South African franchise. The 20-20 cricket team from Cape Town will be called “MI Cape Town”. The owners have also named the team taking part in UAE T20 League as the “MI Emirates”.
Earlier, the cricketing world was rocked by the news of Indian T20 League franchise owners buying all of the six teams of the upcoming South African T20 League. Franchise owners of Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Lucknow won the bids for the six teams of the upcoming South African T20 League.
“We are excited to take the Mumbai brand of fearless and entertaining cricket to South Africa, a nation that loves cricket as much as we do in India. South Africa has a strong sporting ecosystem, and we look forward to exploring the power and potential of this collaboration,” Nita Ambani, director of Reliance Industries and the part owner of the Mumbai team was quoted as saying after the successful bid for MI Cape Town.
Excited by the opportunity- Graeme Smith
The news of all six teams having been bought by Indian owners came in as a huge surprise to cricket fans. The Cricket South Africa statement however was content with the outcome and said, “The open bid process, managed by Deloitte Corporate Finance, attracted over 29 entities who expressed interest in owning a franchise worldwide. Over 10 venues were made available for interested bidders to own a franchise and all 10 of them received expressions of interest.”
Graeme Smith, the former South African captain who now heads the CSA’s upcoming league was also in high spirits after successfully overseeing the auction process.
“I’m deeply committed to South African cricket and happy to serve the game as best I can. I’m excited by the opportunity to deliver the new league, which I believe will be an extremely competitive product, one that can bring the much-needed investment into the game and provide new opportunities for players around the world and more importantly to our SA homegrown talent,” said Smith.
