Plans for a Twenty20 cricket competition in South Africa have been thrown into doubt after South African television network SuperSport pulled out of an equity deal with Cricket South Africa (CSA).
According to a statement released by SuperSport, the television network terminated discussions with CSA around a shareholding model for the tournament on 23 July.
The announcement comes just months after it appeared the two parties had reached an agreement to operate the competition through a joint venture known as Newco.
SuperSport chief executive Gideon Khobane said of the deal: “We reached an in-principle agreement with CSA regarding co-ownership of this event in June this year. Since then, the parties have been engaged in amicable discussions regarding the details of the proposed relationship. We have used our best endeavours to reach consensus with CSA around that shareholding model, but this has unfortunately not happened.”
SuperSport said it continued to be “engaged in discussions with CSA regarding the broadcast of the event”.