Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Former South African pacer Allan Donald believes that Indian representation in the SA20 will grow the league exponentially, which will get its third winner in the final between MI Cape Town and defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape on February 8.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Premier League (IPL) have been the guiding forces for South Africa’s premier T20 competition – SA20 – since its inception. However, the BCCI had never allowed any Indian player to participate in the tournament before Dinesh Karthik played for the Paarl Royals in the ongoing season.
Royals bowed out of the tournament after losing the second qualifier against two-time champion Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Centurion on February 6.
“Well, you know, it’s not for me to decide. Obviously, BCCI is the strongest cricket board on the planet. I think that it would be great to see younger and more talented Indian players (in SA20),” Donald said.
Meanwhile, the 58-year-old fast bowler is keen to see top Indian stars in the league, for which the talks have been going on with the BCCI for a long time.
“You’ve got your established guys, you’ve got Rohit Sharma, who’s done it, who’s been around the tracks. If there are some Indian cricketers keen to play in the SA20, wow, it would be amazing. This league would grow and grow exponentially. Like I said, it’s been talked about; it’s been branded about. Will we see some more Indian cricketers coming to our shores and being a part of SA20? I sat in the first year, and I thought, this is a massive competition. The second year was even bigger, and this year we’re reaching heights that we haven’t seen before.
“Now that you talk about there’s a little rumour going around at the moment. I saw it on Instagram again this morning about, could there be two more franchises added? So there was a guy with a poster of ‘Royal Challenges Bloemfontein’. Who knows? I mean, we’ll see what pops up at the end of the year. But yeah, it would be, there’s no doubt that if the Indian cricketers are available, I’m sure that Graeme Smith (league commissioner) and his team would definitely grab that chance,” he added.
