An agreement is in place for the six existing teams to remain for one more season.
An expansion of the popular SA20 league is on the cards in the long run, but there won’t be significant changes next year, according to league commissioner Graeme Smith.
Since its inception in 2023, the tournament has grown into one of the most popular sport series in the country, and while the organisers were still waiting for the broadcast figures from the 2026 campaign which ended last weekend, Smith said they were confident they had experienced continued growth.
However, the potential of expanding the number of teams in the league beyond six could not be considered until the 2028 campaign, due to an agreement with the Indian Premier League teams which owned the franchises.
“There was a commitment made to franchises that initially invested in SA20 that we wouldn’t do anything for five years. We would allow the tournament to grow. But post season five (in 2027) it will certainly be something that needs to be considered,” Smith said yesterday.
“There are a number of factors that would need to be considered there. How many [teams are included]? What’s the interest from outside investors that are keen? Are there another 25 or 30 high quality South African players? And so on.
“So there’s a lot that goes into that and it will have to go back to the shareholders to form part of a bigger discussion.”
Home play-offs
While none of the teams in the play-off matches competed at home this season, Smith said the condensed campaign made the logistical issues too challenging to overcome at this stage.
It would be necessary to extend the length of the competition and deal with logistical problems in order to give higher-ranked teams home play-offs.
This could not be reassessed until 2027 when Cricket South Africa confirmed its new future tours programme for the next four-year cycle.
“Cricket South Africa (CSA) are working hard on their future tours programme in the background from 2027 onwards for that four-year cycle, so it’s a lot of complex work,” Smith said.
“It’s not entirely in my hands, and we would obviously love an extra week to be able to have our ideal window… but unfortunately the schedules are so tight at the moment. We will continue to work with CSA to see what works best.”
