As many as 300 South Africans and 241 overseas players are set to go under the hammer at the SA20 2026 auction next week in Johannesburg, with 84 slots up for grabs. Each of the six teams was allowed six retentions, apart from a wildcard pick ahead of the auction for the fourth edition of the tournament. While several high-profile South African players, including Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis, Quinton de Kock, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, Wiaan Mulder and Lungi Ngidi, will be entering the auction, there are several big names in the overseas roster as well.
Who says the T20 format is for youngsters? A 43-year-old legend of the game, James Anderson, is on the path to reinvent himself, having played in the Vitality Blast and the Hundred this season and the 38-year-old Shakib Al Hasan, another great of the game, has begun his T20 sunset well in the CPL and might find takers based on his performance for the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons.
No Indian player was shortlisted as part of the 541-name list. The likes of Piyush Chawla, Siddharth Kaul and Ankit Rajpoot had registered their names among 13 players for the auction, but not one could attract interest from any of the six franchises. R Ashwin, the recently retired former India off-spinner, it seems, didn't register for the SA20 auction and will not play in the fourth edition of the tournament.
A total price point of R131 million (INR 65.7 crore) will be on the table as the teams look to rebuild their squads from scratch. SA20 will also have a U-23 category, whereby teams will be required to have at least two players in that age group in the squad of a total of 19 players. One team can have a maximum of seven overseas players in the squad and has to have a minimum of nine South African players. A wildcard pick will round off all the squads.
Interestingly, all six teams have already finalised their wildcard picks - Donovan Ferreira (Joburg Super Kings), Heinrich Klaasen (Durban's Super Giants), Kagiso Rabada (MI Cape Town), Rubin Hermann (Paarl Royals), Andre Russell (Pretoria Capitals) and Marco Jansen (Sunrisers Eastern Cape). The auction will take place on Tuesday, September 9.