Cricket South Africa (CSA) CEO Pholetsi Moseki has indicated how its profit from the successful SA20 has affected the organisation’s much-depleted coffers but stressed that the tournament’s success means so much more to the sport in the country than just the immediate gains.
CSA is the majority shareholder of the tournament, owning 50%; pay-channel SuperSport owns 30% and former Indian Premier League COO Sundar Raman owns the remaining 20%. That means CSA are getting the biggest piece of the pie.
While Moseki said the hugely successful inaugural 2023 SA20 did not really “move the needle” on the organisation’s huge and well-documented debt of about R200m, the early success of the competition has left CSA with reason to be optimistic about the financial stability it can bring to the SA ruling body.
SA20 surpassed almost all expectations in its inaugural season, both on and off the field, as organisers reported a profit after they had budgeted for a loss at least in the first five seasons. The tournament attracted broadcasters from around the world, sponsors and most importantly it managed to draw spectators back to stadiums, something not seen in domestic cricket in South Africa for a long time.
A common question is how such a successful opening event could have changed CSA’s financial situation, having declared a loss of R198m in the previous financial year, in the near term.
CSA’s hope is that, given the huge outlay in launching the competition, and its small and unexpected initial profit, the competition will make more money in each of its further annual editions as the costs of putting it on decrease and income is maximised.
“We were expecting to break even [on an SA20 return] after five or six years, so we are quite excited we could actually report a little bit of a profit from year one,” Moseki said.
“In the bigger scheme of things, SA20 on its own was never going to rescue CSA. But it’s one of the mechanisms that will be used and a very important mechanism, obviously, to assist with our financial picture.
“We are quite excited it did show a bit of profit in the first year, and it is going to contribute to our financial plans. But it must be said, it’s not that much to move the needle yet.
There’s this new vigour we need to leverage on. Commercial partners are looking at cricket again.
— Pholetsi Moseki
“But we do hope in the next four or five years time it will be contributing enough to move the needle.
“For us, the exciting part was making sure the event does better and breaks even far earlier than we thought.”
A better impression of the exact impact of the financial gains made from SA20 will be seen when CSA reports on its 2022-23 financial year. “We will get dividends that will go to our broader revenue, because our revenue is made up of different components, including broadcast deals,” Moseki said.
“SA20 is going to be one of those, and it will go to the bigger revenue that we will use to put back into the system.”
There has been much discussion on where the money from SA20 should be spent. Women’s cricket development and South Africa’s waning domestic structure are areas that have been mentioned as in serious need of a shake-up.
Domestic cricket that has weakened significantly in the last two decades has been blamed for the Proteas men’s battling performances on the international stage, including their failure to win a World Cup.
Moseki said though the financial profits are not big enough to immediately put CSA in the black, they made a lot of other gains that will help bring stability to game in the country.
The CEO said the tournament and the last month’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup staged in the Western and Eastern Cape have raised awareness of the game, portrayed cricket’s brand in a new light and made it easier for CSA to approach sponsors to provide the much-needed financial backing to the sport.
“Besides the financial aspect of it, I think SA20 has done far more [for cricket in SA],” he said.
“It’s got people excited and passionate about cricket again and the [Women’s] World Cup as well. There’s this new vigour we need to leverage on. Commercial partners are looking at cricket again.”
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