A new East African T20 league spanning Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi is targeting a June-July 2027 launch, with organisers planning an annual franchise-fee model and expecting the competition to become profitable in its first year. SriYentra Sports Services is developing the tournament around a three-country footprint as it looks to establish a new franchise cricket business in Africa.
The project comes as T20 leagues continue to spread into markets beyond cricket’s traditional centres, including the United States, Canada, the UAE and Nepal. Broadcasting rights, sponsorship and franchise fees have become revenue streams for competitions operating under the model.
SriYentra Sports Services Group CEO Anshul Garg told Deccan Herald: “T20 is something that people like. It is a short format, which is why various leagues are popping up all over the world.”
East Africa forms the centre of the league strategy
The league’s geographical strategy is centred on Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi, which organisers see as the foundation for establishing the competition in East Africa.
Garg said: “Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia are not small countries at all. They have a very good, about 56 million population, very young demographic. Most importantly, they are politically stable and well-governed with all cricket infrastructure available.”
International players will be eligible to participate within quotas established for 20-member squads. The proposed June-July window also falls during the African winter, with organisers looking to capitalise on the tourism period associated with wildlife migration.
Economics and audience shape business case
SriYentra has built its financial assumptions around the economics of staging the competition in the region.
Garg noted: “One of the big levers economically is that our operational cost of organising the league in Africa is minuscule when compared to the European Cricket League.”
Beyond its cost structure, SriYentra is assessing the audience characteristics of the markets it plans to enter.
He added: “Plus the fact that a lot of people, a lot of the demography is like the Indian demography. There are a lot of young people in Africa and that is demonstrated by 1.2 billion YouTube sports views every month that the continent records.”
Mobile viewing forms another part of the organisers’ assessment of the market, with sports content being consumed through phones across Africa. Real-money gaming is also among the factors being considered, with the activity legal in Africa and attracting a large audience.
Franchise model sets annual investment structure
SriYentra has also outlined how prospective franchise investors would participate financially in the competition.
Garg said: “We have kept the franchisee fee not upfront but an yearly franchisee fee, which is about $3 million per year.”
Individual franchises are projected to reach valuations of US$40-45 million over the next five years. The model is being developed against a wider shift towards private ownership in franchise cricket, with IPL-linked investors holding teams in the SA20, Caribbean Premier League and ILT20, while private investment has also entered The Hundred.
SriYentra Sports Services is led by Chair Arpinder Raj Singh, with Sanjay Garg serving as a Board Member. Kuben Pillai brings cricket industry experience to the project after previously working with Cricket South Africa in finance and operations and with the ICC’s Development Programme in Africa.
Global events provide backdrop to growth plans
The timing of the proposed launch places the competition alongside two significant events for cricket’s global development. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia will host the 2027 ODI World Cup, returning the tournament to Africa after 24 years and marking the continent’s first multinational cricket tournament since the 2007 T20 World Cup.
SriYentra expects the World Cup to lift cricket viewership across Africa, where the population is around 1.6 billion. The organisers are also factoring the continent’s mobile consumption of sports content into their expectations around potential audience growth.
Cricket will then feature at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, giving the sport another global platform soon after the league’s planned launch. Those two events form part of SriYentra’s longer-term outlook for the competition.
Garg stated: “That itself gives a lot of valuation jump to us. You know, we foresee that the franchisees after five years, because of the World Cup happening, as well as because of the cricket including in L.A 2028 (The Olympics), we foresee that the valuation for the franchisor should be around 300 million dollars after five years.”
The East African league is therefore being planned around a 2027 launch, participation from international players and an annual franchise-fee structure, with the ODI World Cup and cricket’s Olympic return forming part of the environment in which SriYentra intends to develop the competition over its first five years.
