CSA forges new era for women's sport with professional domestic league

Financial backing from the government ensured Cricket SA became the first sport’s federation to launch a professional women’s sports league on Tuesday.

The CSA Professional Women’s Domestic League, as it will be known, will consist of six teams in the top division, with CSA contracting 11 players per team. “We have been working on it for quite a while and it was just a matter of getting financing,” said CSA’s chief executive, Pholetsi Moseki.

In March, following the Proteas women's team’s run to the final of the T20 World Cup, the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture gave CSA R15-million, specifically for the establishment of a women’s professional league. 

“We started planning two years ago, but we needed money to get to this stage,” said Moseki.

“The government obviously assessed it, but that put a lot of pressure on us. We said to ourselves ‘if we wait for money we will wait forever.’ So we said ‘let’s launch it,’ and then see how we balance the books.”

The new competition, just like the men’s domestic tournaments, doesn’t have a corporate sponsor. “Hopefully someone will come on board. But we are not going to wait for a sponsor. It’s just too important.”

Sports Minister, Zizi Kodwa, congratulated CSA on the launch, describing it as a groundbreaking undertaking for women’s sport. “This League is a symbol of progress and breaking down preconceived notions of women’s role in sport,” Kodwa. 

Although government has provided financial backing, Kodwa said more was needed. “In order to take this league to greater heights, it will require more funding from corporate backers.”

The six teams; the (Northerns) Fidelity Titans, (Central Gauteng) DP World Lions, (KZN) HollywoodBets Dolphins, Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers (from Oudtshoorn), Free State and Six Gun Grill Western Province, will contest the new league in two formats — a T20 competition and a 50-over tournament. Their positions in the new competition were decided by where they finished last season. 

The remaining nine teams will play in the second division and in two years time one will be eligible for promotion, while the team that finishes bottom of the first division will be relegated. 

“One of our biggest headaches is obviously to get more money, even if it is enough to just create a semi-professional structure in the second division. You don’t want to create a massive gap between the top six and the other nine provinces,” said Moseki. 

He explained that it was concerning that neither of the two Eastern Cape unions — Eastern Province and Border — were in the top division. The region is a hot bed for development in the sport.

“With the plans we want to put in place, it will allow them to be ready to move up. It’s not ideal, but it is what it is. Ultimately, this is a professional environment, and it is brutal, but we need to make sure that we give them the necessary support,” Moseki explained. 

The competition will start in mid-October.