SA20 and ILT20 chiefs but heads over leagues

ILT20 CEO, David White, has hit back at criticism of the league from SA20 commissioner Graeme Smith, stating that the latter's comments came from a "lack of research".

Speaking to Wisden.com at the start of the UAE-based league's third season, which clashes with the SA20, White pushed back at assertions that the ILT20 does not invest enough into local cricket.

"I think that his comments come from a lack of research," said White in response to Smith's comments. "If you look at what we're doing in the UAE, in the greater Gulf region we are investing heavily into cricket ... We had a fantastic development tournament, 300 players applied for it. From that we had a draft and those players are playing in the league this year. We also in the last year or so invested heavily in school festivals, school's competitions and in the wider Gulf region."

The ILT20 is unique among major T20 franchise tournaments in that it requires a minimum of only two local players in each XI, leaving a maximum of nine spots to be filled by overseas players. In the opening game of the 2025 tournament, the total number of balls faced by a UAE player was two, while Zahoor Khan and Farhan Khan were the only local players to feature with the ball. There has been further criticism that the introduction of the impact player rule last season has further limited the participation of UAE players in the league.

Last week, SA20 commissioner Smith criticised the league for its reliance on overseas players. "It's very difficult for me to not come across like I'm bad-mouthing them, but I do feel like a league like that is not good for the game," said Smith. "That there's that many international players required to build a team; there's no investment back into local cricket. That is a challenge for the world game and something that needs to be managed going forward."

The SA20 and ILT20 are in direct competition for overseas players, with both leagues sharing space in the same window. However, while the ILT20 are reliant on overseas talent, the SA20 requires its sides to field a minimum of seven South Africans in an XI. They are also required to feature a rookie South African player under the age of 22, who has not been contracted in the tournament before, in their squads.

"The fact that we have nine overseas players make it a very strong competition," said White. "Not only do we have very strong top-flight international players, we also have Associate players – so we’ve got players from all around the world. We’ve got players from Nepal, Malaysia, Scotland, Netherlands, Namibia to say a few. We’ve got our UAE players who are benefiting significantly from this league.

"I think that you’ll see even this season that there’ll be more [UAE players in the league], it’s only a minimum [two players]. Such were the performances of the [UAE] players last year and the performances of the players on the international stage, they [UAE] have qualified for the Asia cup for the first time in eight years. I think that the coaches will be picking more than two players in the future."

White, who served as chief executive of New Zealand Cricket for over a decade, also addressed concerns around crowd attendance for the current edition of the League. The first season of the competition was played in front of largely empty stadiums, with almost all of its audience tuning in from overseas – a global audience of 367 million of which 255 million came from India alone in year one.

“Year one, the crowds weren't what they could have been,” said White. “But I know that last year we had a 300 per cent increase on crowds – they were a big focus for last year ... We’ve worked very heavily on that and worked closely with the franchise partners, our commercial partners, Zee Network and DP World and collectively, and we think we’ve come up with a very compelling campaign to keep driving the crowds.

"Let’s be realistic, this is a start up and it’s only the third year and we’re not a full member. We’re an associate country but we believe that we are competitive with the full members and that we stand on our own two feet and the crowds will be good.

"I think that people have got to, I’m not saying open their eyes, but there is life outside the full members and we’re an associate country. But we believe we can compete and provide a league that is on par if not better than most of the leagues in the world, and I’d just like people to have an open mind. Surely the major aim for everyone is to grow the game globally and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

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