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The brand-new T20 league launched by Cricket South Africa (CSA) will be called ‘SA20’, league commissioner Graeme Smith said on Wednesday. He also confirmed that the player auction for the inaugural season, to be played in January-February 2023, will be held on September 19. The six franchises will be allowed to acquire the services of 17 players at the most and will have a purse amount of USD 2 million.
The six teams - all owned by groups that own teams in the IPL - have already signed between two and five players apiece from a pool of marquee players as part of the direct-acquisition process. The purse amount left with teams for the auction will depend on how much they spend during acquiring the pre-auction players [the five include a maximum of three overseas players, one a South African international, and one an uncapped South African player].
The franchises will be allowed to sign as many as seven overseas players while ten South Africans will be must in every squad. In the playing XI, teams will be allowed to field four overseas players and seven local players, the same way it happens in the Indian Premier League.
The league is currently working through player registrations and will present the franchises with a shortlist of candidates ahead of the auction. "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," Smith said.
"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 added.
The league commissioner also discussed the issue of the CSA league clashing with several other T20 leagues. While Smith has met with organisers of the ILT20, the two players signed to both the BBL and SA20 - Liam Livingstone and Rashid Khan - have made themselves available for only part of the BBL, because they had signed with CSA first.