Johannesburg – This season's T20 domestic challenge will start with a triple header on November 2 at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, Cricket SA (CSA) announced on Tuesday.
“One of the ideas we launched last season was the concept of a triple header with all six franchises playing at one venue on the same day,” CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat said in a statement.
“This was such a success that we have expanded it to three triple headers this coming summer, giving fans the chance to see all their favourite players in one venue.”
Lorgat revealed that the Proteas players could also feature in some of the games this season.
“The fixtures have been designed to allow our Proteas the chance to play in the latter stages of the competition which would include the eliminator between second and third placed teams and the grand final,” he said.
Last season also saw the competition televised globally for the first time, and this season's tournament will once again be screened throughout Africa, Asia and the United Kingdom.
“It has been an incredibly exciting and invigorating new challenge for me to be involved as the tournament director for the RAM SLAM T20 competition,” said former Proteas captain Graeme Smith.
Meanwhile, cricket fans attending the 2014/2015 edition of the T20 challenge that successfully take a clean, one-handed catch at a televised match could win a share of R1 million.
The catch must be taken off a “six” hit and juggling the ball with one or two hands will not be accepted as a clean catch and must be clearly visible on the stadium replay screen and broadcast TV camera.
Last season's competition saw crowd attendance increase by 43 percent with more than 212,000 fans passing through the turnstiles as compared to the season before.
Television audience ratings also saw a significant rise with a 92 percent increase from the season before amounting to over 1,7
million unique viewers during the 21 matches. – Sapa