There was a time, in living memory, when many of South Africa’s major sports were run out of the proverbial old tog bag. Rugby from Danie Craven’s car boot , cricket from a cottage on the grounds of Joburg’s Wanderers club or, in the case of financially stressed nonracial bodies, from the sitting-room of struggle icon Hassan Howa’s home in Heathfield, and football from a parking lot.
Today the three codes are multimillion-rand businesses, driven largely by TV. It’s a big-money game. Last year, Star India paid an eye-watering $3.2bn for the broadcast rights for the Indian Premier League for five years. Viacom18 paid about the same for streaming rights over five years. Taken together, that’s a cool R114bn for five seasons of cricket...