The Sunrisers Eastern Cape revealed their early hand for the Betway SA20 Season 4 by retaining two regulars and bringing in three new international players when the pre-signings and retained lists were released on Wednesday ahead of the September 9 auction.
Proteas power-hitter Tristan Stubbs will remain at St George’s Park and will be joined by all-rounder Marco Jansen, who was strategically named as a wild card.
The fresh international faces are mystery Afghan spinner Allah Ghazanfar, New Zealand fast bowler Adam Milne and English wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow, who is no stranger to orange having previously turned out for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League.
The teams were each permitted a maximum of six retained or pre-signed players, comprising a maximum of three South African and three overseas players during the player retention window, which closed on July 18.
The teams also strategically completed their six wild-card signings, with all the focus now on the remaining slots and the collective maximum purse of R131m, to be spent on the 84 available slots at the auction on September 9 in Johannesburg.
For season 4, a wild card player could be any overseas player or a South African player who was part of the team’s squad in season 3.
The list of players and remaining salary cap is:
Durban’s Super Giants (R29.5m): Sunil Narine, Noor Ahmad, Jos Buttler, Heinrich Klaasen (wild card)
Joburg Super Kings (R21.5m): Faf du Plessis, James Vince, Akeal Hosein, Richard Gleeson, Donovan Ferreira (wild card)
MI Cape Town (R11.5m): Ryan Rickelton, George Linde, Corbin Bosch, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Nicholas Pooran, Kagiso Rabada (wild card)
Paarl Royals (R14.5m): Lhuan-dre Pretorius, David Miller, Bjorn Fortuin, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Sikandar Raza, Rubin Hermann (wild card)
Pretoria Capitals (R32.5m): Will Jacks, Sherfane Rutherford, Andre Russell (wild card)
Sunrisers Eastern Cape (R21.5m): Tristan Stubbs, Allah Ghazanfar, Adam Milne, Jonny Bairstow, Marco Jansen (wild card)
Some SA players available to be picked up at the auction include Proteas World Test Championship Final heroes Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Wiaan Mulder and Keshav Maharaj, along with top young talent Dewald Brevis and Kwena Maphaka.
T20 specialists Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi are also available.
Betway SA20 league commissioner Graeme Smith said: “When the league first drafted its regulations in season 1, we always saw this forthcoming season as an opportunity for a strategic reset — and this is exactly where we envisioned being.
“There’s now a strong balance between pre-signed and retained international and Proteas players, alongside a significant purse available for the auction,” he said.
“After three seasons, the franchises have developed a good understanding of the South African cricket ecosystem and adopted a distinct strategy which sets the stage for the most exciting auction yet.”
The season 4 auction will be live on SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa and JioHotstar in India with rolling coverage of all the action across all Betway SA20 social media platforms. — SA20 Media
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