WATCH | Name for new CSA T20 league announced

Cricket SA (CSA) has announced the name of its new T20 league.

The league will called the “SA20” and is scheduled to start in January 2023.

The name was confirmed by the commissioner of the six-franchise T20 competition Graeme Smith in a virtual press briefing on Wednesday.

“From our perspective the name is pretty simple but it’s something we can own and really build and bring to life,” Smith said.

“A lot of work has gone into it and we are very excited with what we can create going forward. We hope it’s a brand that can bring cricket together and bring new fans to the game.

“One of our tag lines for this event is, ‘It’s for everyone’, and that is something we will be.”

Smith shared more details about the competition, including the date for the auction of players and the salary purse each franchise will have.

The teams will have a total of 17 players with 10 of them South Africans, and Smith said there will be a seven/four split on the field.

All six franchises are owned by companies that also have teams in the world’s best T20 competition, the Indian Premier League.

“The auction will be on September 19,” Smith said.

“It’s something we have worked tirelessly to get to. Behind the scenes we've worked hard to set ourselves up for that auction. We have managed to attract some high quality players.

“Obviously, the large part of our playing group will be South Africans, but internationally we have an extensive list we are sorting out for the auction.

“We are finalising some auction details. We are sorting out the player registration. We’ve had an immense amount of player registrations both locally and internationally.

“There’s a $2m [about R34m] salary purse. There has been an element of pre-signing that has been made public.”

The teams will be based in Paarl, Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Gqeberha.

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