White-ball cricket for Division 1 sides will begin in February, with the Pro50 tournament which will be played as a single round of round-robin matches. Each team will play the other seven once before a qualifier and a final in late March which follows the same format as last year. There will only be one T20 competition this season: a Pro20 Cup, in which all 15 domestic sides as well as a South African Emerging side between late September and mid-November. The Division 1 CSA T20 Challenge has been scrapped.
The new Pro20 Cup will include 71 matches with the 16 teams split into two groups of eight. Each team will play the other seven in their pool and the top four will progress to a Super 8 round, which will consist of 12 matches, before semi-finals and a final. The inclusion of all South Africa’s domestic teams in a T20 competition, rather than a 50-over one, especially with an ODI World Cup looming, came at the behest of the Division 2 teams, who believe the commercial opportunities for T20 cricket will serve them best. It is understood that a sponsor for the tournament and television broadcast details are yet to be confirmed.
