Homegrown Heroes Rule SA20 Stage

The first day of the ILT20 Tickets SA20 player auction was packed with awe-inspiring big-money bids and team reshuffling ahead of Season Four. The headline moment came when Dewald Brevis, South Africa’s T20I record-holder, smashed the league’s price ceiling to earn Pretoria Capitals (PC) a mammoth R16.5 million. It was a stunning sum, more than half their available purse and an emphatic indication of PC’s intent to build their team around the 21-year-old prodigy.

But the auction also saw a host of other high-quality players get snapped up, including South African T20 specialists Aiden Markram and Lungi Ngidi, as well as Kwena Maphaka, Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje. The six franchises have a total of 84 open spots to spend on players and a collective maximum purse of US$7.37 million for the tournament’s fourth edition.

SA20’s unique set of rules continues this season with captains able to select their playing 11 after the toss and teams earning up to five points in a match. In a nod to the globalization of cricket, teams have also been given greater freedom in selecting their overseas squads, with each side permitted up to three foreign players, as well as one international player.

Defending champions MI Cape Town have maintained a balance between youth and experience in their team, adding experienced fast bowler Heinrich Klaasen to their core while retaining two Under-23 players and South African T20 specialist Karim Janat. Durban’s Super Giants have strategically completed their six Wildcard signings, including West Indies T20 World Cup winner Sunil Narine and England star Jos Buttler, while retaining experienced skipper Lance Klusener at Boland Park.