De Villiers, Rabada, Gayle, Rashid Among Marquee Players For South Africa's New T20 League

Cricketnext Staff | Updated: October 15, 2018, 8:15 PM IST

Cricket South Africa on Monday announced the names of six franchises that will play in the Mzansi Super League (MSL), South Africa's new Twenty20 league. AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir and JP Duminy have been confirmed as the marquee South Africa signings.

While de Villiers will play for the Tshwane Spartans, du Plessis will represent Paarl Rocks. Amla will play for the Durban Heat, Rabada for the Jozi Stars, Tahir for the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants and Duminy for the Cape Town Blitz.

The six teams will be competing across 32 matches from November 16 to December 16, with the player draft scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

“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,” said Cricket South Africa Chief Executive Thabang Moroe.

"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."

The six franchises will also get to pick one player each from the six marquee international players - Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Rashid Khan - during the 'American sports-styled' player draft.

“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 added.

“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 International series.”