The Lions and the Dolphins have been named the champions of the South African first-class and one-day tournaments respectively. This is after the local cricket season was curtailed because of the global Covid-19 crisis.
Each of the two teams topped the log of their respective competitions when the tournaments were called off and were named as champions on the recommendation of Graeme Smith, the director of cricket for Cricket South Africa (CSA).
This decision was endorsed by the CSA board and council, the latter comprising the presidents of CSA’s thirteen provincial affiliates.
In the first-class competition, eight of the ten rounds of matches had been played, with the Johannesburg-based Lions retaining their title. The Dolphins, which play out of KwaZulu-Natal, finished on top of the log of the one-day competition, which was postponed before the play-offs could be held. Last season, it was won by the Pretoria-based Titans.
ESPN Cricinfo quoted Smith as saying: ‘This is undoubtedly the fairest way to decide the various winners. In the provincial competitions where some teams have played more games than others, we have taken the average number of points per game to decide on final log positions.’
In CSA’s other competitions, Easterns and KwaZulu-Natal were named joint winners of the semi-pro three-day competition and the Free State and the Northern Cape joint one-day tournament winners. In the women’s competitions, Western Province were named T20 champions and North-West crowned as the winners of the 50-over competition.