Publications
Partners
Cricket SA’s (CSA’s) Global T20 League player auction, which will begin at 10am in Cape Town today, is most likely the first step towards making the inaugural competition – which it is hoped will one day be mentioned in the same breath as the IPL and the Big Bash – a reality.
After a couple of stumbling blocks, the most prominent of which was one of the would-be South African owners withdrawing its proposed purchase of the Stellenbosch franchise – 160 local hopefuls were shortlisted to be auctioned to the eight teams that make up the league.
Going into the draft, the most pressing matter for CSA is the fact that only seven of the teams have owners, meaning they are scrambling to find a replacement for Brimstone Investments, which passed up the opportunity to buy the Stellenbosch franchise.
“There is a process in place to get other owners in,” said CSA communications manager Altaaf Kazi, adding that, for the time being, the governing body would cover the franchise’s costs, which include putting together their squad, until a new owner was found.
Be that as it may, the show, or at least the player auction for the tournament – which will begin in November and finish on December 16 – must go on as the eight franchises look to fill their 18-player rosters.
They are the Stellenbosch Monarchs, the Durban Qalandars, the Bloem City Blazers, the Cape Town Knight Riders, the Pretoria Mavericks, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stars, the Joburg Giants and the Benoni Zalmi.
As things stand, there are 16 marquee players, eight of them internationals (Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga, Brendon McCullum, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Kieron Pollard and Jason Roy). The others are South African internationals (Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir).
The next layer from which the player auction, which will be in dollars, will be conducted features some pretty handy local names, which are led by one Dale Steyn and all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo.
The two Proteas will be accompanied by the likes of the promising Lungi Ngidi, the big-hitting Chris Morris, the old finisher Albie Morkel, the often maligned Farhaan Behardien, Titans opener Henry Davids, the gifted but inconsistent Wayne Parnell, the wily Keshav Maharaj and the abrasive Tabraiz Shamsi, who is clearly a fast bowler trapped in a wrist spinner’s body.
There will also be some Kolpak players to look at: Cameron Delport, Richard Levi, Colin Ingram, Stiaan van Zyl, Dane Vilas, Colin Ackermann, Simon Harmer, David Wiese, Marchant de Lange and Hardus Viljoen. Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw will give the tournament a miss.
Looking at the host stadiums – Kingsmead, Willowmoore Park, SuperSport Park, Newlands, Boland Park, Mangaung Oval, Wanderers Stadium and St George’s Park – they are all in line to earn a little extra cash for their domestic franchises during the six weeks or so it will take to stage the competition.
An industry insider said the amount would probably get up to between R1.7 million and R2 million. While this may not sound like much, it is.
