SA20 officially Cricket SA’s new kid on the block

It’s official — Cricket SA’s new T20 league will be known as the SA20, commissioner Graeme Smith announced on Wednesday.

The competition, which aims to rival some of the biggest T20 tournaments globally, is set to take off in January 2023 and will feature six host franchises countrywide.

The franchises, who are also team owners in the lucrative Indian Premier League, have invested in the six domestic franchises and aim to take cricket to the next level in the country.

The SA20 has attracted some of T20 cricket’s global stars including Liam Livingstone, Jos Buttler, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, and Moeen Ali to add to the list of world-class contracted Proteas players.

“From a league perspective and the SA20, we think it is something that will make a big impact on SA cricket,” Smith told a media briefing during the unveiling of the tournament’s name on Wednesday.

“We are bringing in six partners who are joining us at the hip in terms of building something sustainable, investing in grassroots and SA cricket and hopefully building a bigger and stronger player base because of it.”

Smith also announced that the player auction, from which teams will be populated, will take place on September 19, when several high-profile stars are set to go under the hammer.

“We are still finalising some of the auction detail, for example the player lots, sorting out the player registration with an abundance of registrations both locally and internationally.

“There is a $2m [R34.1m] salary purse for each team, and there has been an element of pre-signing which has been made public, so you can see which team has signed which player,” Smith said.

Asked about the format of the competition, Smith said they are still in discussions about the draft fixtures list to decipher what would be best for the league to be hosted smoothly.

“The draft fixtures are pretty much done. After the auction, we will have a workshop with the team owners and the ops teams, and once that is done we will release them.

“In theory, [there will be] home and away fixtures, 33 games including the knockouts and there will be double headers.

“There will also be three knockout games. We are in the draft fixtures trying to decide on what is best for the league. So, we haven’t quite committed to that just yet. We are just trying to debate as to what would be the most exciting,” he said.

Smith said there would be a 10-7 split in terms of local and international players in the squad, with teams able to include up to four internationals into the playing XI.

He said there were plans to introduce a women’s element to the tournament in the future. “I think with the Women’s World Cup starting directly post the new league, it just wasn’t viable for this year. But it is definitely in our plans to begin one as soon as possible,” he said.