CSA to invest $27 million to upgrade stadiums

Johannesburg, June 13 (IANS) Cricket South Africa (CSA) has announced plans to upgrade all its stadiums for the first season of the upcoming domestic Twenty20 league.

The CSA plans to invest more than 350 million rand ($27 million) for the improvements, which will include state-of-the-art artificial lighting systems, sports field technology and LED scoreboards.

"We want our cricket stadiums to be world class," CSA chief Haroon Lorgat said in a statement.

The T20 Global Destination League is the CSA's attempt to replicate the success of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Big Bash League (BBL) and Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in South Africa.

The league is expected to be held in November-December with the team owners set to be announced on June 19, in a event in Lord's Stadium.

It is being reported that CSA has already received more than 150 expressions of interest to buy one of the eight franchises available, with Indian filmstar and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) owner Shah Rukh Khan also said to be interested.35% of the interested parties are from India.

A total of 11 cities are currently in the race to host the eight teams. These are Paarl (Boland Park), East London (Buffalo Park), Kimberley (Diamond Oval), Durban (Kingsmead), Bloemfontein (Mangaung Oval), Cape Town (Newlands), Potchefstroom (Senwes Park), Pretoria (SuperSport Park), Port Elizabeth (St. George's Park), Johannesburg (Wanderers Stadium) and Benoni (Willowmoore Park).

Each franchise will have one foreign and one domestic marquee player. The marquee players include AB De Villiers, Chris Gayle, Quinton De Kock and Eoin Morgan.

"Our aim is for the T20 Global League to rank among the world's best T20 leagues, and enhancing the in-stadium experience of fans is essential," Lorgat said.

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