MI Cape Town appoint Robin Peterson as head coach for SA20 2024; Lasith Malinga named bowling coachÂ
Former South African spin-bowling all-rounder Robin Peterson has been appointed as the head coach of MI Cape Town for SA20 2024. Former Sri Lankan great Lasith Malinga will be the bowling coach for the franchise in the upcoming season.
While Peterson was already part of the MI Cape Town setup as the general manager in the inaugural season, Lasith Malinga gets associated with yet another MI franchise.
The South African will replace former Aussie batter Simon Katich as head coach, and Malinga will take over the reins as bowling coach from former New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram. Interestingly, Peterson and Malinga were teammates in the Mumbai Indians for a season in 2012.
More recent history saw the pair successfully perform the same roles for the MI New York franchise at the inaugural Major League Cricket (MLC) season. The franchise won the title under their wings earlier this year in the six-team competition played in the USA.
Despite barely qualifying for the playoffs, the side won three consecutive games to emerge as winners of the maiden MLC season.
Hashim Amla will continue as the batting coach of MI Cape Town, with the likes of Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Sam Curran, and Dewald Brevis retained ahead of the auction set to take place later today (September 27) in Johannesburg.
MI Cape Town endured a dismal campaign in the inaugural SA20
Despite entering the inaugural SA20 season as the overwhelming favorites, MI Cape Town succumbed to the expectations to finish at the bottom of the points table.
With a squad boasting some of the most celebrated international stars like Rashid Khan, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Kagiso Rabada, and Liam Livingstone, among others, the side's performance was bitterly disappointing.
They started the season winning two of their first three games before experiencing a disastrous downward slide by losing six of the final seven encounters. A pivotal reason for their bottom-placed finish was the lack of consistency and match-winning performances with the bat.
Only Rassie van der Dussen averaged above 30 with the bat, but he scored at a strike rate of only 122.11 in ten games. The side had no batter in the top eight of the run-scoring or wicket-taking charts, with Rabada finishing at No.12 at 11 wickets in eight games.
Meanwhile, the Pretoria Capitals finished as table-toppers, with seven wins in ten games, but were upset by the third-placed Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the summit clash in Johannesburg.
Led by Aiden Markram, the Sunrisers overcame an inconsistent showing in the league stage to defeat the top two teams in the semifinal and final to be crowned as the champions of the inaugural SA20.