Former India batter Virender Sehwag shared that a bit of jealousy could have been the reason behind Graeme Smith’s comments on the International League T20 as well. As per Sehwag, while the UAE league features many international stars, the SA20 has failed to attract too many big names so far as well. Notably, the ILT20 started on January 11 and will conclude on February 9. On the other hand, the SA20 began on January 9 and will end on February 8 as well.

Reacting to Smith’s assessment, Sehwag said on the YouTube channel Snitch: “I sense jealousy there because we have a plethora of international stars coming in, whereas their league is starved of such international players. I can understand his (Smith’s) pain, but this is even better for the ILT20. You get to see established players here along with some local UAE talent who are rubbing shoulders with legends and experienced pros.”
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While speaking at the captain’s day press conference in Cape Town, Graeme Smith also added that leagues like ILT20 are not good for the sport of cricket and that need to be managed because there’s not enough investment in local cricket as well.

“We see ourselves as very different to the ILT20. We’re a South African league, with a majority of South African players, and our ultimate goal is to benefit South African players.”We’ve been built up against ILT20, so it’s very difficult for me to not come across like I’m bad-mouthing them, but I do feel like a league like that is not good for the game; that there’s that many international players required to build a team; there’s no investment back into local cricket. That is a challenge for the world game and something that needs to be managed going forward,” he added.