Mzansi Super League: Franchises, marquee players, player drafts & all the details
Cricket South Africa(CSA) announced it's new T20 franchise-based tournament. It's now official that the Mzansi Super League is CSA's domestic T20 league in place of formerly Ram Slam T20. After months of discussions and postponement, the CSA has finally released a sneak peak of their newly born T20 franchise league.
A total of six franchises will be competing across 32 matches from November 16 to December 16. Names of the six franchises for the inaugural edition of CSA's T20 league are Cape Town Blitz (PPC Newlands), Durban Heat (Kingsmead), Jozi Stars (Bidvest Wanderers), Nelson Mandela Bay Giants (St George's Park), Paarl Rocks (Eurolux Boland Park) and Tshwane Spartans (Supersport Park Centurion).
Ab de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir are the six South African marquee players whereas Chris Gayle, Rashid Khan, Dwayne Bravo, Eoin Morgan, David Malan and Jason Roy are the six overseas marquee players.
The "American sports-styled" player draft will be held on Wednesday (October 17), where the six franchises will have to pick one from the six South African and six overseas marquee players.
"It was a thorough and well-audited process that led to the six winning bids from our members, as well as the collective contribution from all stakeholders involved that led to the final names and logos which we also had to make sure, met our objectives for this event," CSA CEO Thabang Moroe said. "What was clear throughout this definitive process was that these are completely new entities and names that will operate separately from the current franchise teams. We welcome the six new additions to the South African and international cricket family."
"We have received applications from over 200 top international players who expressed interest in playing in this inaugural tournament and will have their names in the hat ahead of the player draft process on Wednesday," Moroe said. "There were expected challenges in the process, of course, with some players available for a particular period because of other cricket commitment clashes elsewhere, including our Proteas, who also have to fulfill our tour to Australia for a one-day series."