Grounds to bid for teams in South Africa's T20 competition

South Africa's stadiums have had to submit bids to host a team in the new, yet-to-be-named T20 tournament by Friday. Six venues will be chosen after an independent process by analytics agency Nielsen Sports, who will present their preferences to CSA's board.

The six venues will correspond to the six teams that will play in the competition - for example if the Wanderers is chosen, a team from Johannesburg will feature in the new tournament. No other specifics of the competition have been made public yet, but CSA CEO Thabang Moroe will meet with the board over the weekend to iron out some details.

High on the agenda will be the partnership with the broadcaster SuperSport, which was announced as an equity partner in the new tournament in June, to an uproar from the original GLT20 owners. Four of those owners - Durban Qalanders, Bloem City Blazers, Nelson Mandela Bay Stars and Pretoria Mavericks - have threatened CSA with legal action, with owners reserving their rights to teams.

When Moroe, along with CSA Acting COO Naasei Appiah, and board members Iqbal Khan and Louis von Zeuner, met with the GLT20 owners last week, they said they could reconsider the deal with SuperSport and also that they would get back to the owners in 10 days. One owner told ESPNcricinfo that the terms of CSA's agreement with SuperSport had not yet been agreed, and the contract was not considered finalised.

ESPNcricinfo understands that there is now a possibility that SuperSport could pull out of the equity deal and remain in a broadcast capacity only, opening the door for the teams to be privately owned. CSA could face major losses if the tournament goes ahead with SuperSport forgoing its 49% equity share and the continuing opposition from within the board towards private ownership. However, postponing the competition again will have a similar financial stain on CSA, leaving the organisation scrambling over how to pull the event off.

In the meantime, CSA have not released any details of domestic fixtures for the new season, which is about a month away. Franchises have received tentative schedules, with the first-class competition set to start at the end of September. A franchise twenty-over tournament is also on the calendar, which means CSA will host two (three if you count the Africa T20 Cup) twenty-over tournaments in the 2018-19 season.