Great to see a full Newlands. SA20 look and feels better than the Mzansi Super League. As a South African, though appreciative about the "cash injection" the IPL owners bring to the table, I simply cannot help but feel they are taking away what should feel like an authentic South African league. The logos, jerseys etc. make it feel like a 2nd division IPL tbh.
Personal feelings aside, it is great to watch youngsters like Brevis showcase their talents. Hopefully this league will help CSA to scout young raw talent and give them ample game time against some of the best international players around.
Perhaps it's my English eyes being a little biased but, it definitely feels more inauthentic than something like The Hundred. Which, despite being manufactured in an advertising/marketing office, having teams wearing kits based on crisp packets, at least they're our crisp packets. The Hundred's appeal, for me at least, is also down to the increased prominence it has given the women's game. The teams, overall, do have their own identity to build and develop. This feels designed to capture the Indian TV market by making it as familiar as possible for them with teams dropped into random cities and grounds with their identities pasted on.
The amount of English players also made it feel like that was the story. Buttler, Morgan, Roy vs Archer, Stone and Curran - rather than big name South Africans playing each other. One of the biggest name South Africans, in the two sides, not playing also smacks of 'this isn't that important'.
I fell asleep in the second innings but did notice a switch to calling Mumbai Indians Cape Town just MI Cape Town. I'm not sure if they realised how stupid the full name sounded (much like The Hundred when, after banishing the word 'over', they realised you needed a word to explain the collective five balls and a came up with 'set' on the fly) or just got bored of saying the full thing.
It is good that the story of the day is a young South African though, I think that's one thing that's been a positive in The Hundred; the domestic and English players often being the stand out players. These domestic leagues need local stars that are there year on year and creating heroes/household names of players that might not even make it to the national side - the BBL/WBBL does a great job with that. It's why I think, as a neutral, this is far more appealing than the tournament going on in Dubai, where it's all about the overseas players.