As the main draw section of the T20 World Cup gets underway in Australia there will be no less than 26 players on view who will be turning their attention towards the inaugural season of the SA20 which starts less than two months after the global showpiece comes to an end with the final at the MCG on November 13.
That number would have been even higher – 31 – but for the shock elimination of the two-time champions, West Indies, in the WC Preliminary round with Odean Smith (MI Cape Town), Obed McCoy (Paarl Royals), Kyle Mayers and Jason Holder (Durban Super Giants) and Alzarri Joseph (Jo’burg Super Giants) all making an early departure from Australia.
The Pretoria Capitals lead the way with no less than eight of their contracted squad at the World Cup, twice as many as any other Franchise. Englishmen Phil Salt and Adil Rashid will be based at Supersport Park in Centurion along with Black Caps allrounder Jimmy Neesham, Sri Lankan dasher Kusal Mendis and Ireland’s left-arm seamer, Josh Little.
Their complement of international stars is completed with the Proteas trio of Rilee Rossouw, Wayne Parnell and Anrich Nortje.
Three of the teams have four squad members competing in Australia over the next 17-23 days, depending on whether their teams reach the semifinals and final. MI Cape Town would probably have had five had Rassie van der Dussen not broken a finger and missed the World Cup but Englishmen Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran, legendary Afghan legspinner Rashid Khan and Kagiso Rabada are all set to play prominent roles for their countries.
The Paarl Royals boast England captain Jos Buttler, his predecessor Eoin Morgan and the man who was expected to open the batting with Buttler until a disastrous loss of form over the last six months, Jason Roy. Another trio of Proteas – David Miller, Lungi Ngidi and Tabraiz Shamsi – make up their World Cup contingent.
The Sunrisers Eastern Cape will also be keeping a close eye on their quartet of internationals – hoping for some injury-free, golden form – as Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs and Marco Jansen line up for the Proteas while veteran former Protea, allrounder Roelof van der Merwe, gets a bonus five games for the Netherlands following their shock qualification from the Preliminary round into the main event.
Durban Super Giants saw their number of World Cup stars reduced from five to three with an ankle injury to England left-arm fast bowler, Reece Topley, in a warm-up match which ruled him out of the tournament having already seen Dwaine Pretorius replaced by Marco Jansen after breaking a finger. Nonetheless, another trio of Proteas from the Franchise will be in action – Quinton de Kock, Keshav Maharaj and Heinrich Klaasen.
Joburg Super Giants skipper, Faf du Plessis, would have loved nothing more than a place in the Proteas squad and plenty of pundits believed the national squad would have been well served with his experience. Instead, the Super Giants will be represented at the World Cup by English middle order blaster Harry Brook, Sri Lankan mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana and Reeza Hendricks.
The opening game of the SA20 takes place on 10 January, just 58 days after the T20 WCup final.
Whether South Africa finally breaks its World Cup duck in Australia or not, the country’s cricket fans have plenty to look forward to in the New Year Holiday season.