Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) new T20 franchise league has been named as ‘SA20′, it was announced on Wednesday.
In a virtual press conference, league commissioner and former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith informed that the player’s auction for the inaugural season of the league will be held on September 19.
The player registrations for the SA20 player auction closed on Sunday evening with a positive show of interest from players around the world and from established as well as young South African talent.
All the six teams, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Pretoria Capitals, Paarl Royals, MI Cape Town, Johannesburg Super Kings and Durban franchise, owned by IPL franchises, have already signed up to five players apiece (four by Paarl, two each by Pretoria and Eastern Cape) through a direct-acquisition process.
Speaking at the press conference, Smith said: “Today is another significant day as we officially unveil the SA20. We selected a name for its simplicity and something that can be uniquely ours as we enter this new and exciting phase of cricket in South Africa. Dropping the T in T20 cricket shows our intention to be different.”
“We want to change the game for our players and for our fans, and most importantly, create a League that all South Africans can be a part of,” he added.
Notably, the upcoming league has attracted some of T20 cricket’s biggest names like England’s Liam Livingstone, Jos Buttler, and Moeen Ali apart from West Indies’ Jason Holder and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan apart from the experienced Proteas players.
“The countdown to January 2023 gets more thrilling with each major milestone that we cross and today is another step towards that first ball being bowled. We hope fans will be able to relate to our brand as we work towards making the SA20 a world-class tournament South Africans can be proud of,” added Smith.
SA20 will be in a direct clash with UAE’s ILT20, also scheduled to begin from January next year and the two leagues will be stagedat a time when Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) and Bangladesh’s Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will be on.