Picture Credit: CSA
After a pre-auction player-acquisition process in the inaugural season of the South African Twenty20 League (SA20), the league is back with its Players Auction ceremony on September 19 in Cape Town. Each of the six franchises will play 17 players in their team including seven overseas and 10 South African players.
In the direct-acquisition, MI Cape Town, Durban Super Giants, Johannesburg Super Kings bought five players, Paarl Royals bought four players and Pretoria Capitals and Sunrisers Eastern Cape bought two players each. However, JSK's Moeen Ali will be playing in the ILT20 leaving four players in the SA20 franchise.
A t otal of 533 players will be part of the auction, out of which 248 are South African players. The auction will have players divided into three categories in terms of their minimum valuation, Rand 1,750,000 (around US$100,000), Rand 1,700,000 ( around $97,000), and Rand 850,000 (approx. $48,000).
The franchises are allowed to have an overall purse of US$2 million to buy up to 17 players for their inaugural league. However, they have already bought 23 players in the pre-auction and the franchises will enter the auction with remaining pursue value.
Among the overseas players, West Indies' Jayden Seales and Odean Smith have placed themselves in the highest bracket, while players like, Eoin Morgan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, and more have placed themselves in the middle section. The lower bracket consist of 52 players including 11 South African players.
The SA20 will have a clash with the Big Bash League in Australia, the ILT20 in UAE, and the BPL in Bangladesh. All the six franchises of the SA20 have been bought by the Indian Premier League franchise owners.