Cape Cobras head coach Ashwell Prince has expressed ‘a lot of excitement’ at the advent of the Mzansi Super League.

The six team names and logos of South Africa’s new Twenty20 tournament were unveiled on Monday.

Prince will likely coach the Cape Town Blitz. The other teams are the Durban Heat, Jozi Stars, Nelson Mandela Bay Giants, Paarl Rocks and Tshwane Spartans.

‘The Blitz is just perfect for the T20 format that we are playing. There’s not a lot of time to knock it around for singles – let’s get it blitzed,’ said Prince.

‘I love the logo, I love the name – a lot of work has been put into it.

‘I think at the moment, everyone around the country is waiting to see how that draft is going to pan out.’

The player draft will happen on Wednesday, when England’s Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy and Dawid Malan, West Indians Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan will be among several international stars available for selection.

‘I’ve had bits and pieces of advice from people who’ve done the draft before – and they’ve advised us to try to do a kind of gimmick draft – just in case some of the people who you thought you were really going to get are snapped up just before you have your pick. Then you have two minutes to come up with a different name.’

Batsman JP Duminy has been named the Blitz’s marquee Proteas player, while Western Cape neighbours Paarl Rocks have national captain Faf du Plessis.

‘There’s not much of a rivalry between Cape Town Blitz and Paarl Rocks – more of a brotherhood than a rivalry, but it will be interesting to see how many players from the Western Cape who they snap up. You might only get a handful of your normal players, so new rivalries will be formed in the Mzansi Super League,’ concluded Prince.

The tournament will start on 16 November and end on 16 December 2018.

Image: Gallo