Photo Credit: SA20 League
Barely a week after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup has concluded, the world’s best players will be headed back to the USA, but this time to play in Major League Cricket – starting on Friday night (SAST).
A total of 22 Betway SA20-signed players will be in action in the six-team competition, which includes three aligned with SA20 franchises: MI New York (MI Cape Town) and Seattle Orcas (Pretoria Capitals) who play in the season-opener and Texas Super Kings (Joburg Super Kings).
NEW ARRIVALS
Proteas captain Aiden Markram headlines the new arrivals who did not feature in MLC’s inaugural campaign in 2023 and will be turning out in Texas Super Kings colours. ‘Sauce’ will be spared captaincy with TSK, as Faf du Plessis reprises his SA20 role under the tutelage of Stephen Fleming.
Durban’s Super Giants’ Afghanistan duo of Noor Ahmad and Naveen-ul-Haq will also turn out for TSK, fresh from helping their country to a dream run to the T20 World Cup semifinals.
Seattle Orcas, Season 1’s runners-up, have signed up Proteas left-handers Nandre Burger and Ryan Rickelton and the pair will undoubtedly want to hit the ground running having not seen action during the T20 showpiece in the US and West Indies.
Speaking of West Indies, allrounder Romario Shepherd will be in blue (rather than Super Kings yellow) during MLC, having been signed by defending champions MI New York.
Across to the other coast of USA, San Francisco Unicorns (who finished Season 1 in fifth place) has made Wiaan Mulder a late addition to their roster and he will be the only SA20 links after they didn’t retain Lungi Ngidi and transferred Marcus Stoinis to Texas Super Kings for the upcoming campaign.
ON THE MOVE
Two SA20-signed players have also changed MLC teams for Season 2. Paarl Royals captain, David Miller has traded Texas for California, having signed for Los Angeles Knight Riders.
On the other hand, his national teammate, Anrich Nortje, has left Washington Freedom (and Marco Jansen) behind to join MI New York who already boast Kagiso Rabada as a bowling spearhead.
STAYING PUT
Rabada, in turn, is one of seven SA20 players taking up MINY’s eight international slots, five of which are hoping to retain the title – their captain Kieron Pollard, Season 1 Player of the Tournament Nicholas Pooran, Dewald Brevis and Rashid Khan being the others.
Runners-up the Orcas, will be able to call on captain Wayne Parnell, Heinrich Klaasen and Quinton de Kock again while Marco Jansen is remaining with Washington Freedom, Jason Roy will help his Royals captain settle at the Knight Riders and Du Plessis (and late re-signing Gerald Coetzee) will do the same with the various new arrivals at the Super Kings.
SA20 PLAYERS IN MAJOR LEAGUE CRICKET SEASON 2
Los Angeles Knight Riders: *David Miller (from Texas Super Kings), Jason Roy ENG
MI New York: (Season 1 champions) Dewald Brevis, Rashid Khan AFG, Anrich Nortje (from Washington Freedom), Kieron Pollard WI – captain, Nicholas Pooran WI, Kagiso Rabada, Romario Shepherd WI
San Francisco Unicorns: *Wiaan Mulder
Seattle Orcas: (Season 1 runners-up) *Nandre Burger, Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, Wayne Parnell – captain, *Ryan Rickelton
Texas Super Kings: Gerald Coetzee, Faf du Plessis – captain, *Noor Ahmad AFG, *Aiden Markram, *Naveen-ul-Haq AFG, *Marcus Stoinis AUS (from San Francisco Unicorns)
Washington Freedom: Marco Jansen
*new signing
Name of Author: SA20 League
SA20, officially known as the Betway SA20 for sponsorship reasons, is a Twenty20 franchise cricket tournament in South Africa organized by Cricket South Africa (CSA). First held in the 2023 season, the league features six city-based teams. Sunrisers Eastern Cape won the first two editions of the tournament.
