Cricket South Africa (CSA) is leaving no stone unturned to make the inaugural edition of its T20 league a huge success. The board has already announced that 6 teams will be taking part in the competition and all the sides will be owned by the IPL franchise owners.

Amid the hype around CSA’s new T20 league, the signings of international players have already begun, with the board on Wednesday (August 10) confirming that it had secured the services of over 30 marquee names.

According to a report published in ESPNCricinfo, England batters Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone are in the top salary bracket and are expected to earn USD 500,000 each, while their national teammate Moeen Ali is likely to fetch USD 400,000.

The report also suggests that each team has USD 2 million in a purse to sign players and is allowed to spend a maximum of USD 250,000 on each cricketer. Any amount paid above that will be a part of the franchise’s marketing cost.

As per the report, 11 English players have been signed up for the English players, including former white-ball captain Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, and Sam Curran.

10 Sri Lankan players including Niroshan Dickwella and Maheesh Theekshana also feature in the 30 marquee players list. They have secured 6 Caribbean players, including Jason Holder, Kyle Mayers, Alzarri Joseph, Obed McCoy, and others.

As expected, no Pakistani players have been roped in for the CSA T20 League because of the owners’ connection with the Indian Premier League (IPL).

For the inaugural edition, each team will have a pool of 17 players. Prior to the auction, they can sign five players, including three overseas players but not two from the same country, one international South African, and one uncapped South African. The auction is expected to be held in the upcoming weeks.

The CSA T20 League, slated to take place in January 2023, is likely to clash with UAE’s ILT20. Notably, three of the six ILT20 teams are also owned the IPL franchises.

(With ESPNCricinfo inputs)