The country’s newest T20 tournament, South Africa 20 League is a step closer to fruition.
The player auction was held in Cape Town on Monday, where all six franchises finalised their respective squads’ of 17 players.
Explosive Warriors batsman Tristan Stubbs was the most expensive player who sold to the Sunrisers Eastern Cape for a cool R9.2 million.
With a combined budget of R34 million, franchises could sign seven overseas players and 10 South African players in their squad of 17 but they can only field four foreign players in their playing 11.
Over 300 players went under the hammer in Cape Town on Monday. The highest bid was made for wicket/keeper batsman Stubbs.
Having impressed in this year’s SA T20 Challenge as a finisher, the 22-year-old was sold to the Sunrisers Eastern Cape for R9.2 million.
At R4.3 million, Tabraiz Shamzi, the number two bowler in world T20 rankings was the most sought after local bowler going to the Paarl Royals while Marco Jansen was the all-rounder of choice for the Sunrisers at R6.1 million.
Some of the foreign-based players who were bought include England’s Jason Roy and Adil Rashid as well as bowler Alzarri Joseph from the West Indies.
Surprisingly former England and Proteas white ball captains Eoin Morgan and Themba Bavuma remained unsold after the first round of bidding.
The SA 20 League will comprise of 33 matches and is set to get under way in January next year.
All teams will play each other twice on a home-and-away basis with two semi-finals and the final to follow.
