The SA20 league is all set for its major revamp to date, as the SA20 Auction 2025-26 will see a total of 546 players, featuring big names such as Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis, James Anderson and Shakib Al Hasan, will be available for selection. The Auction will be held on Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at the Sandton Convention Centre.
It’s the league’s first mega auction since its inception a few years back, allowing teams to go all in and rebuild most of their squads for the 2025-26 season, which has been scheduled to take place from December 26, 2025, to January 26, 2026.
The SA20 2026 Player Auction will be broadcast live on SuperSport in South Africa, JioHotstar in India, and Sky Sports in the UK, starting at 2:00 PM local time i.e. 5:30 P.M Indian Standard Time (IST) on September 9.
There are six teams; Durban’s Super Giants, Joburg Super Kings, MI Cape Town, Paarl Royals, Pretoria Capitals, and Sunrisers Eastern Cape, all teams owned by the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises, and each of them will put together a squad of 19 players.
The squad building rules also add that teams have to have at least nine players from South Africa, no more than seven overseas players, and two young local players who are under 23. A new rule called Right to Match (RTM) has been introduced, allowing teams to retain a player by matching the highest bid.
Each team gets R41 million (around USD 2.27 million) salary cap to use, totaling USD 7.37 million for the auction across the board. Meanwhile, the wildcard players already picked or to be picked by every franchise are excluded from the salary cap with each team allowed up to one wildcard signing.
The player list is full of quality players from across the world. South African names like Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje, and Keshav Maharaj are all in there, and the South African team captain Markram could get a big payday since Sunrisers Eastern Cape released him.
England’s James Anderson, the 43-year-old cricket legend and veteran, is returning to T20 franchise action and will be one of the prominent names in the auction list. Other key international stars like Moeen Ali, Alex Hales, Shakib Al Hasan, and Mustafizur Rahman will also be in the mix for a shot.
The auction list also includes 28 players from the West Indies, but there will be no Pakistani players in the mix because of the IPL team ownership ties. Starting bids for players begin at R5000,000, and there is a high chance that someone could topple Tristan Stubbs’ R9.2 million record from 2023, with Aiden Markram and Dewald Brevis the most likely candidates.
Meanwhile, the Indian players are not allowed to feature in any other T20 franchise leagues other than the Indian Premier League (IPL) unless they have retired from all forms of the game. As such, there were 13 Indian players who registered for the Auction but none made the eventual 546 players shortlist.
SA20 2025-2026 Retained Players and Remaining Purse
MI Cape Town
- Remaining Purse: R11.5 million
- Retained Players: Ryan Rickelton, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, George Linde, Corbin Bosch, Nicholas Pooran, Kagiso Rabada (Wildcard).
- RTM Left: 0
Paarl Royals
- Remaining Purse: R14.5 million
- Retained Players: David Miller, Lhuan-dre-Pretorius, Bjorn Fortuin, Sikandar Raza, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Rubin Hermann (Wildcard).
- RTM Left: 0
Sunrisers Eastern Cape
- Remaining Purse: R21.5 million
- Retained Players: Tristan Stubbs, Adam Milne, Jonny Bairstow, Allah Ghazanfar, Marco Jansen (Wildcard).
- RTM Left: 1
Joburg Super Kings
- Remaining Purse: R21.5 million
- Retained Players: Faf du Plessis, Akeal Hosein, Richard Gleeson, James Vince, Donovan Ferreira (Wildcard).
- RTM Left: 1
Pretoria Capitals
- Remaining Purse: R32.5 million
- Retained Players: Sherfane Rutherford, Will Jacks, Andre Russell (Wildcard).
- RTM Left: 0
Durban’s Super Giants
- Remaining Purse: R29.5 million
- Retained Players: Jos Buttler, Noor Ahmad, Sunil Narine, Heinrich Klaasen (Wildcard).
- RTM Left: 1
