Razeen Gutta
Over R125 million was spent as teams for the first ever South African T20 competition (SA20) were finalised in the Cape Town auction earlier this week – but both the Proteas skippers were snubbed.
There was disappointment from Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the fans but the independence of the new league was emphasised as Proteas T20 captain Temba Bavuma and test captain Dean Elgar went unsold in Monday’s auction.
Only six black African players were chosen by the six buying teams as squads reached capacity.
CSA chairperson Lawson Naidoo expressed his thoughts on the absence of Bavuma in the league.
“It is obviously disappointing that so few black African players were picked up in the auction, especially Temba Bavuma,” Naidoo told Sport24.
“As disappointing as it is I don’t think it should detract from the overall positive energy that the
SA20 league has the potential to bring to South African cricket.”
The league is made up of six Indian Premier League franchise owners, with the Mumbai Indians, Lucknow Super Giants, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings and one of the owners of Delhi Capitals all buying teams.
Naidoo emphasised the independence that franchises have in forming the squads in saying that despite transformation being a key initiative for CSA, the franchises make the final call on the players they buy.
“It’s important to continue to engage the franchises on the imperatives of transformation, what that means and what it looks like in our context and how they can make a meaningful contribution to that,” he said.
“But this was an auction process, and this is how it works. It’s up to the franchises themselves to select the manner of the teams they would like.”
Tristan Stubbs was the most expensive player in the auction after he was bought by Sunrisers Eastern Cape for R 9.2 million. Marco Jansen, who also went to the Sunrisers, went for R6.1 million.
Rilee Rossouw and Wayne Parnell will head to the Pretoria Capitals for R6.9 and R5.6 million respectively and Donavon Ferreira was snapped up by the Joburg Super Kings for R5.5 million.
Image source: @TimesLIVE
