The league said on Wednesday that the new Twenty20 tournament in South Africa will be dubbed SA20. The six teams have already started the hiring process, and a player auction will be held later this month to finalize the rosters.
The competition will begin on January 23 as South Africa makes a tardy debut into the lucrative T20 market, and it will last for a month. The league’s commissioner, former South Africa captain Graeme Smith, said teams will be allowed to deploy a maximum of four foreigners per match.
The Indian Premier League bought the six franchises, which have locations in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Paarl, Port Elizabeth, and Pretoria. According to Smith, the owners would be able to choose their teams from a “excellent list” when a player auction is place on September 19.
“We are sorting through a long list of international players for the auction. Due to the enormous number of players, we’re currently organizing the player registration and finishing out some of the auction specifics,” Smith stated.
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“The clubs have a purse of $2 million, which already includes the pre-signed players. There has been some pre-signing going on. There has been a lot of work put into it,” he continued.
“We’re extremely thrilled about what we’ve accomplished and what we can produce moving forward.” Along with West Indians Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers, England internationals Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, and Liam Livingstone have already been signed.
Although the beginning of SA20 conflicts with the Big Bash League’s final stages in Australia, Smith stated arrangements have been made for BBL players who have signed for SA20 to go and play in South Africa.
According to Smith, who spoke at a virtual press conference, “They have a different system this season, so the players in our league who have signed up will be there up until the early days of January so that they will be available.”
“They’ll be freed to play here and be totally ready for the South African league after that.”
