c  The SA20 playoffs format for this season still rewards mediocrity, writes SIMON BORCHARDT.

Last year, in the inaugural edition of the SA20, the top four teams on the six-team log qualified for the semi-finals, with 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3.

The final ended up being 1 vs 3, with 3 (the Sunrisers Eastern Cape) upsetting 1 (the Pretoria Capitals).

This year’s SA20 playoffs format has been adopted from the IPL.

The top four teams qualify for the playoffs, with the top two meeting in the first qualifier playoff. The winner progresses to the final, with the loser facing the winner of the eliminator playoff (3 vs 4) in the second qualifier playoff.

What I like about this format is that it gives the two best teams in the league stage another bite of the cherry if they stumble at the first playoffs hurdle.

What I don’t like about it, when used for a six-team tournament like the SA20 (the IPL has 10) is that it rewards mediocrity.

Look at the SA20 log heading into this week’s matches:

The teams ranked fourth and fifth, the Pretoria Capitals and MI Cape Town, had each won just two out of seven matches, yet could sneak into the playoffs. Even the bottom-placed Joburg Super Kings, with one win, could still make it.

Does the team that finishes fourth on a six-team log really deserve to make the playoffs and have a shot at winning the title?

My suggested SA20 playoffs format would see the team that tops the log rewarded for that achievement by qualifying for the final, which they would deservedly get to host. (At the moment, playoff venues are pre-determined, which is why the top-of-the table Pretoria Capitals had to play their semi-final and the final at the Wanderers last year.)

The teams that finish second and third on the log could then meet in a qualifier playoff to determine who joins the No 1-ranked team in the final.

The problem with that format, though, is less playoff “product” for broadcasters and sponsors.

My solution: Make the final a best-of-three “finals series” (a concept that proved popular for many years in Australia’s World Series tournaments, involving three and sometimes four nations).

The No 1-ranked team would host the first final (another reward for “winning” the league stage) and the third final (if required), with the second taking place at their opponents’ stadium.

That would keep the broadcasters and sponsors happy, differentiate the SA20 from other T20 franchise tournaments, while increasing the chances of the best team actually lifting the trophy (which, as the Capitals will attest, wasn’t the case last year).

Photo: Shaun Roy/Sportzpics