SA20 season four auction set for huge tussle over T20 circuit’s big hitters

The fourth season of the increasingly popular SA20 cricket tournament takes place from 26 December 2025 to 25 January 2026. The big excitement ahead of the match action will be found in the player auction, which takes place on 9 September in Joburg, with the bidding kicking off at 2pm.

Betway SA20 League Commissioner Graeme Smith has predicted that the R10-million glass ceiling will be shattered during the auction, with SA20 captain Aiden Markram, Kesh Maharaj, Matthew Breetzke and Dewald Brevis the front-runners to be the big-ticket items on the day.

“When you start looking at the first two or three sets that are coming up, there's some really exciting players that are going to be bid for. So, I think, absolutely, R10 million could be broken for the first time,” said Smith.   

The six franchises will be vying for 84 player slots available as they look to complete their 19-player squads, with a total of R131-million (US$7.39 million) available to be spent. 

Last season’s champions MI Cape Town have the smallest bid budget, with R11.5-million to spend on 12 players (including our overseas players).

Second on the SA20 table in 2024/25 were the Paarl Royals, who need to fill 13 spots (five overseas professionals) in 2025/26 with their purse of R14.5-million. 

Joburg Super Kings and Sunrisers Eastern Cape can each spend R14.5-million on 14 players (four overseas places).

Big strugglers Durban’s Super Giants need to find 15 players (four overseas) from their healthy budget of 29.5-million as they look to make the playoffs this season.

And finally, Pretoria Capitals (who also missed last season’s playoffs), can spend up ot R32.5-million to bring in their 16 needed players.

The big-ticket players will be the overseas stars of the caliber of Jason Roy, James Anderson,  Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Moeen Ali, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Mustafizur Rahman, Logan van Beek, Maheesha Theeksana, Corey Anderson, Johnson Charles, Shakib Al Hasan, Reece Topley and Craig Overton. This group of players have all set their base prices at R1-million or above.

Lungi Ngidi’s great form in recent months will put him high on the lists of many franchises, along with Dewald Brevis, who has started to shine on the international stage in the last six months. 

One of the overseas stars who will be in demand is Jordan Cox, who played for Sunrisers Eastern Cape in 2023, but averaged only 7.33 with the bat. Cox’s star shone bright during the recent The Hundred, where he topped the runs list with 367 runs (ave 61.16) in taking the Oval Invincibles to a three-peat of titles.  

For the fourth season the rookie draft has been done away with, and instead each of the franchises will be required to sign at least two under-23 players who must be included in their final squads, which will be capped at 19 players each, with a maximum of seven overseas players.