South Africa’s own T20 league, Mzansi Super League (MSL), finally got underway on Friday despite facing so many hurdles. Cape Town Blitz led by Dawid Malan faced the AB de Villiers‘ Tshwane Spartans in the tournament opener and the hosts’ decided to spoil the latter’s return to the cricketing field. However, more than the game what sought the attention of many was De Villiers using a walkie-talkie to interact with the coach Mark Boucher during the first innings.

This comes as a unique innovation in the MSL as an electronic device has never ever been used on the field by the players. However, it has often been seen that the commentators have come on the field to chat with the cricketers during the action. But the incident of the fielding captain using the walkie-talkie took place for the first time.

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ABD used the walkie-talkie for the first time during the sixth over of the first innings. The skipper is expected to be sharing the tactics with the coach with a partnership building between Jason Smith and Janneman Malan. Interestingly, after the chat, the latter was castled by Robert Frylinck off the very next ball.

The same incident repeated during the 14th over as well and even the spectators were quick to point out the same. However, Dawid Malan, Cape Town skipper, wasn’t seen using the device in the second innings. It seems that MSL has introduced a new innovation into the game and there might be limitations on how many times the captain can use during the innings as De Villiers was seen using it only twice.

Another shocking fact about this innovation is the Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer had predicted these changes in the game for almost two decades ago. Both of them passed away in different unfortunate incidents but their predictions were spot on as South Africa turns out to be the first country to invent the change.