Some of England's big names headline the list of the new players roped in for the 2024 edition of the SA20 league. Moeen Ali has gone to Joburg Super Kings, Liam Livingstone and Tom Banton are with MI Cape Town, and Dawid Malan and Liam Dawson have been picked up by defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
Last season, Super Kings were in a tussle with the UAE's ILT20 side Sharjah Warriors for Moeen, who eventually chose Warriors as his destination, as the dates of the two leagues clashed. That will be the case this year too, with both tournaments starting in the second week of January, when the BBL and the Bangladesh Premier League will also be on.
Meanwhile, quick bowlers Sam Cook and Reece Topley are among the other England players set to feature in the SA20. While Cook was brought on board by Super Kings, Topley was retained by Durban's Super Giants. Super Giants' squad has also been bolstered by the singings of Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Naveen-ul-Haq.
Some of the star players that were retained by the SA20 franchises were Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Dewald Brevis and Sam Curran (MI Cape Town), Faf du Plessis and Gerald Coetzee (Super Kings), Quinton de Kock and Kyle Mayers (Super Giants), David Miller and Jos Buttler (Paarl Royals), and Anrich Nortje (Pretoria Capitals).
While the pre-signings are effectively closed and finalised, teams have until July 31 to trade South African players, retain overseas players, and also buy-out cricketers - both South African and overseas. The players bought out would then go back to the auction.
The second season of the SA20 will also see one additional match in the later stages - a mirror of the IPL's knockout phase - and a salary purse increase of Rand 5.1 million (US$ 276,000 approx.) - per team. Each of the six sides can contract an additional player, too, bringing the total squad size to 19. The additional player must be a South African who is 22 or younger and has not played in the SA20 previously.