Franchises allowed up to six retentions for SA20 auction

The player auction for the fourth season of the SA20 will be held in Johannesburg on September 9, the league said in a statement on Tuesday (June 24). Ahead of the mega auction, wherein a minimum of 72 slots across six teams are up for grabs, the salary purse has been increased significantly to USD 2.3 million each.

Prior to the auction, the franchises are allowed a maximum of six retentions or pre-signed players with no more than three overseas players among them.

A franchise can sign a maximum of seven overseas players in their 18-member squad whereas a minimum of 11 slots are reserved for local talent. A wild card signing will also be available for each of the six teams. The teams can sign a South African or a foreign cricketer as their 'wild card player' with their league fee falling outside of the salary cap.

The auction will debut the Right To Match (RTM) card for the first time in the South African league, allowing a franchise the opportunity to match a winning auction bid on a player who played for that team in the preceding season to retain his services for 2025-26 edition. Depending on the number of South African players retained, each franchise's number of RTM cards will vary.

Meanwhile, the auction ahead of the fourth season will no longer feature a Rookie Draft and instead the onus is on the franchises to sign a minimum of two Under-23 players in their final 19-player squads.

"The SA20 Season 4 Player Auction is setting up to be the most exciting yet, with about 60% of player slots available for the franchises to fill," said Stephen Cook, Head of Cricket Operations at SA20. 'Mechanisms such as RTM cards, Wildcard players and an increased salary cap are sure to create interesting situations for teams and will allow them to strategically select their squads. We have seen some life-changing transactions already in the past few years and the upcoming auction should see plenty more."

Richard Madley will continue to be the auctioneer ahead of the fourth season which is scheduled to kick off on Boxing Day, December 26.