With his office behind Newlands cricket ground, in Cape Town, it might not surprise many that Mustaq Brey will be one of two South Africans to own a team in the T20 Global League that will launch later this year.
Brey, a self-taught chartered accountant, is one of the three Founders of Brimstone Investment Corporation, and was on the cover of Forbes Africa in March, 2015.
Brey, along with Fred Robertson and Lawrie Brozin, took $840,000 from working people and turned it into $628 million.
After 20 years of investment, Brimstone has some of the biggest names as associates, including Life Healthcare, Oceana, Sea Harvest, Lion of Africa Insurance, Tiger Brands and Grindrod Limited.
Now, Brey can add the Stellenbosch franchise of the upcoming T20 Global League to that list. It’s apt that the marquee player assigned to Brey’s team is South Africa’s T20 captain, Faf du Plessis.
The second South African owner is Osman Osman, the Managing Director at BluBlood – a promotions and talent buying company. He will get the Pretoria franchise. His marquee player is AB de Villiers.
“This is a huge opportunity for South Africa, in terms of the exposure that we are going to be getting globally from a tournament of this magnitude. The influx of tourists and highlighting the magnificence of South Africa, it is something that every South African can be proud of and benefit from,” says Osman.
AB de Villiers In Pursuit Of Gold
Another notable owner of one of the teams is Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan. He is a co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, India’s lucrative tournament that has inspired the T20 Global League.
Cricket South Africa, the sport’s national body, hopes the league will bring in a lot of money and also prevent local players going overseas to earn more money. The Proteas recently lost two of its most talented players, Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw, to so-called Kolpak contracts.
Fixtures are yet to be determined, but the tournament gets underway in November.
Global T20 host cities, owners and marquee players:
Durban – Fawad Rana, Hashim Amla
Benoni – Javed Afridi, Quinton de Kock
Pretoria – Osman Osman (SA), AB de Villiers
Stellenbosch – Mustaq Brey (SA), Faf du Plessis
Cape Town – Shah Rukh Khan, JP Duminy
Bloemfontein – Sushil Kumar, David Miller
Johannesburg – GMR Group. Kagiso Rabada
Port Elizabeth – Ajay Sethi, Imran Tahir