Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) new T20 franchise league has been named "SA20" on Wednesday, August 31. The SA20 league’s commissioner, Graeme Smith, has announced the name of the new franchise and confirmed that teams would be allowed to field a maximum of four foreigners in every match.
South Africa's new T20 league will get underway on January 23, while the player auction will be held on September 19. It is being said that CSA’s SA20 will run for a month.
Notably, the six participating franchises are based in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Paarl, Port Elizabeth, and Pretoria, and Smith said that they would be able to pick players from a "quality list".
As reported by Reuters, Graeme Smith stated: “We've got an extensive list of international players that we're sorting out for the auction. We're still finalising some of the auction details and we're sorting out the player registration because of the large number of players.”
He added, “There has been an element of pre-signing that has been taking place and the teams have a purse of $2 million that already includes the pre-signed players. A lot of work has gone into it and we're very excited with what we've done and what we can create going forward.”
He signed off by saying, “They have a different structure 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 released to come and play here, from where they'll be fully available for the South African league.”
Meanwhile, Australia's Big Bash League (BBL) will clash with the SA20, and it can be an issue for the overseas stars, but Smith said that they have already signed agreements and will be released for the SA20.
England internationals Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone have already been signed along with West Indians Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers.
(With Reuters Inputs)
