SA20 2022 Inaugural Season
The new T20 competition, SA20, is all set to contribute to T20 cricket’s spectacular ascent. On Monday, the Board announced the official inaugural date for the tournament. The T20 league will kick off in exactly 100 days on January 10 of next year. Let us look into SA20 2022 Inaugural Season details.
The Twenty20 cricket franchise league in South Africa will conduct its inaugural season in 2022–2023. Cricket South Africa is in charge of the tournament. The league will take place from January through February 2023.
Six teams make up the league. These are MI Cape Town, Durban Super Giants, Johannesburg Super Kings, Paarl Royals, Pretoria Capitals, and Sunrisers Eastern Cape. They are all owned by groups that also have IPL franchises.
What to expect from SA20?
The top three teams advance to the play-off stages. After that the six teams compete against one another in a double round. After the IPL, the CSA will be the second league in the world to allow teams to choose players using an auction format. Other leagues use a drafting model.
Prior to the auction, each team can pre-sign up to five players. Such as three international players, one Proteas player, and one uncapped South African player. These players make squad of 17 members. In addition to all of the contracted Proteas and domestic players who have committed to the League. More than 30 notable international players have signed the League.
History, Finances and Administration
In 2017, the CSA launched the T20 Global League. A franchise-based Twenty20 cricket league modeled after the Big Bash League and the Indian Premier League. The league was postponed by a year due to a lack of a broadcast agreement and title sponsor. Six CSA-owned clubs competed in the Mzansi Super League, which took its place in place of the event in June 2018.
Africa Cricket Development (Pty) Limited (ACD), a newly-formed company in which CSA is the leading stakeholder with 50%, broadcaster SuperSport has a 30% part, and former IPL COO Sundar Raman holds the remaining 20%, was established by Cricket South Africa (CSA) in 2022.
Indian Premier League franchises purchased all six of the teams (IPL). The ODI series against Australia (January 2023) stays canceled. The CSA decides to concentrate more on the competition in July 2022. Graeme Smith was named the tournament’s commissioner in August 2022. Later, The tournament’s star players were revealed in that month.
SA20 Auction
Available 314 players were up for bid in the SA 20 League’s inaugural season auction in South Africa. The action-packed auction process involved all 6 teams. Some big names triggered bidding wars more than others. Such as the national team captains Temba Bavuma and Dean Elgar were passed over and remained unsold.
Tristan Stubbs, a South African batting sensation, sparked an insane bidding spree. Sunrisers Eastern Cape purchased his services for an amazing 9.2 million rand (plus USD 500,000). Stubbs, an IPL player for the Mumbai Indians, was the most sought-after.
