Cape Town - Cricket South Africa (CSA) are planning on booting out African teams from the Africa T20 Cup and the tournament will now be called the CSA Provincial T20 tournament.
The T20 Cup was formed in 2015 as a curtain-raiser to the South African domestic season with local semi-professional franchises taking part in it.
Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Nigeria were the other African nations invited to take part.
The Witness has been reliably informed that CSA, who earlier this year announced their plans to restructure domestic cricket as of May 2020, see no need to accommodate the other African countries anymore.
“It’s not called Africa T20 Cup anymore, it’s called CSA Provincial T20 because the African teams are no longer part of it,” said the source.
“It’s just provincial teams now and there will be at least 15 teams. I was told it's five groups of three teams each.
“It involves the normal 13 teams that are participants in the CSA 3-Day Provincial Cup and CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge. Now they have added Limpopo and Mpumalanga to make it 15 teams.”
CSA head of communications Koketso Gaofetoge did not deny that African teams are no longer going to be part of the tournament, but said everything would be confirmed next week.
Last year, a total of 20 teams took part in the Africa T20 Cup, which saw Gauteng beat Border to be crowned champions.
Other teams that have won the tournament since its inception in 2015 are Pietermaritzburg’s KwaZulu-Natal Inland, Eastern Province and Northerns.