League Commissioner expects high bidding wars for South Africa’s top talent
Betway SA20 League Commissioner Graeme Smith is expecting the R10 million glass ceiling to be shattered at the anticipated Season 4 Player Auction to be held on Tuesday, 9 September in Johannesburg.
A total of R131 million (US$7.39 million) is available to fill the 84 slots remaining for the franchises to complete their 19-player squads.
Two-time champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape still hold the record for the biggest auction purchase of Proteas Men’s batter Tristan Stubbs for R9.2 million in Season 1.
Smith believes this will be challenged when renowned auctioneer Richard Madley wields his gavel on proceedings.
“I think there's going to be a lot of attention on a few players,” Smith said in a media briefing on Friday.
“It's going to be interesting to see how the teams and franchises go about building their squads.
“I think they understand their conditions, their home conditions and the South African player piece in particular, a lot more than in Season 1.
“When you start looking at the first two or three sets that are coming up, there's some really exciting players that are going to be bid for. So, I think, absolutely, R10 million could be broken for the first time.”
It is not only high-profile South African players along with the overseas internationals that could benefit from the Season 4 auction.
Betway SA20 has also introduced a new Under-23 category - replacing the previous Rookie system- which could potentially be career-changing for an entire generation of young South African cricketers.
Each franchise has been mandated to select at least two Under-23 players in their roster.
“It's always about keeping the League as equally competitive as possible, putting the standard of cricket at the highest level, attracting the best international players to be alongside the best South African players and then looking at where we can tweak and improve the system for youngsters,” Smith said.
“I think this year for us we've moved away from the Rookie player and gone for the Under-23 players and the reason for that is that we felt that we didn't want to have a turnover of a young player every year.
“We wanted them to be able to be picked up young and then developed in the system over a three-year period as well. Hopefully, that will create some consistency for youngsters; to allow them to grow and build and hopefully start playing and contributing over this cycle.”
Smith was confident that Betway SA20 has managed to attract another list of high-quality players heading into the Season 4, despite facing a window clash with the high-profile Ashes test series between Australia and England this season.
“For us, FTPs and other challenges have always been something that we've worked with, but our franchises have always managed to attract outstanding players. I think you can’t just look at the auction list and the quality that's gone in there.
“Also look at some of the pre-signed international names that are on the list. Sometimes you lose with the Ashes, but you gain in the England white-ball squad or the West Indian players.
“For the first time, we're going to be seeing Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. There's Jos Buttler. You look at just the pre-signed Trent Boult, Rashid Khan and Nicholas Pooran as some examples.
“There's quality already there, and I think it will be beefed up even more in the auction. I think there's a lot of options for teams. There are some really good cricketers and I'm excited to see what they put together.”
The auction will be broadcast live on SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa, JioHotstar in India and Sky Sports in the UK and the Betway SA20 YouTube Channel from 13h30 SAST. Fans will also receive rolling coverage on all Betway SA20 social and digital platforms.