New Delhi: Despite the backdrop of Dinesh Karthik playing in the SA20 last year and speculation of tens of Indians entering the SA20 Auction on September 9, no Indians will be up for grabs for the fourth season, and beyond, of South Africa’s T20 league. SA20 League Commissioner Graeme Smith has called the situation ‘fluid.’A total of 241 overseas players will be auctioned for 25 slots, while 308 South Africans will compete for 59 places in the SA20 Auction in Johannesburg.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“Indian players are always a fluid situation depending on who’s retiring and who’s available. I think it was like 13 or 14 Indian players in the auction,” the former South African captain told Indian media in a virtual interaction facilitated by SA20.
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Piyush Chawla, Siddharth Kaul, Ankit Rajpoot, Sarul Kanwar, Anureet Singh Kathuria, Ansari Marouf, Mahesh Ahir, Nikhil Jaga, Mohamed Faidh, KS Naveen, Imran Khan, Venkatesh Galipelly, and Atul Yadav had all registered for the SA20 Auction. But the 13 players have not made the shortlist from the initial 800-plus registrations.As per BCCI’s rules, only retired Indian players – from internationals, domestic and IPL – are allowed to play in overseas leagues. Dinesh Karthik fit that bill and was picked up by the Paarl Royals, becoming the first Indian to feature in the SA20.Explaining the auction process, Smith said: “What we do is we send the auction lists, which was over 800 names, to the franchises. They then send us their shortlist back and then we collate a shortened list that goes to the auction.“For us this year, it was a big stepping stone. It was also, you know, after three years of the tournament, we felt that it was time to kind of reset the regulations.”On the absence of Indians, Smith said: “You don’t see an abundance of them involved in T20 leagues around the world. It’s not a new thing. One thing that we have seen from our stats is that we’ve built a really strong viewership in India.”
Sourav Ganguly
Even if there might not be Indian flavour to the league on the pitch, there would be one on the sidelines with Sourav Ganguly being roped in as the head coach of the Pretoria Capitals.“For us, it’s exciting to have a coach of Dada’s quality. The quality of coaches across the board is exciting. It’s an exposure to our players to great minds. Dada is going to come and do things in his own way. The Pretoria Capitals didn’t have the best year last year.“I am sure he will be motivated at the auction to get a quality group of players to take forward into the season,’ he added.South African cricket will hope Ganguly and the competitive league can further the skills of the youngsters especially with the T20 World Cup to follow and ODI World Cup on their (and Zimbabwe and Namibia’s) shores in two year’s time.“Look, I think our pitches didn’t play as well as we would have liked last season,” said Smith on a low-scoring season last time around. “I think in the build up to the 2027 World Cup, there’s a lot of infrastructure development underway in South Africa, improvement of stadiums. All our six stadiums where SA20 will be played will have new lights for season four, pitches are not going to be as overused.“And there’s also a plan in terms of redevelopment of training facilities and pitches.“I think the thing about South Africa as well is that every region kind of plays a little bit differently. You’ve got the coastal regions where the pitches play a certain way. And then you’ve got the highveld at Wanderers Pretoria where the ball travels and pitches have a bit more pace and carry. So, there will be a natural variance in playing around South Africa.“But, you know, what we want is to develop a highly competitive league that the majority of our players hit that World Cup in February in form, being well-prepared, being well-exposed to competitive cricket, that the South African team can hopefully go and build a back-to-back trophy hunt in India,” he concluded.
