South African big hitter Tristan Stubbs fetched the highest bid of R9.2 million at the inaugural SA20 player auction in Cape Town.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape won a fierce bidding war against MI Cape Town and Johannesburg Super Kings to snap up the Proteas star.
Uncapped 24-year-old batter Donavon Ferreira, who plays for the Titans on the South African domestic circuit, created a big stir. Having listed his base price at R175,000, Ferreira, who also bowls a bit and keeps wicket, was eventually snapped up by the Super Kings for R5.5m in the accelerated round of the auction.
The winning bid came after some chaos, as Paarl Royals and Pretoria Capitals both tried to outbid the Super Kings, but were forced to pull out as they didn’t have much left in their purse at that point and had other spots still to fill – if they were allowed to keep bidding, they would have run out of the money needed to fill their quota of 17 players. Ferreira has played 19 T20s so far, and boasts a strike rate of 148.26 and an average of 54.85.
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The Jansen brothers – Duan and Marco – were also in demand, with Marco joining Stubbs at the Sunrisers for R6.1m and Duan going to MI for R3.3m. Marco is already part of the Sunrisers franchise in the IPL, while Duan was recently with the Mumbai Indians development squad that toured the UK.
Kolpak-returnee Rilee Rossouw, who has played T20 cricket around the world, also hit paydirt, with the Capitals forking out R6.9m for him. Wayne Parnell, another Kolpak returnee, also triggered a bidding war, which was won by the Capitals too. They outbid the Super Kings and got the left-arm seam-bowling allrounder for R5.6m.
However, there were no takers for South Africa’s T20 captain Temba Bavuma and Test captain Dean Elgar.
10 most expensive SA20 players:
1. Tristan Stubbs – R9.2m (Sunrisers Eastern Cape)
2. Rilee Rossouw – R6.9m (Pretoria Capitals)
3. Marco Jansen – R6.1m (Sunrisers Eastern Cape),
4. Wayne Parnell – R5.6m (Pretoria Capitals)
5. Donavon Ferreira – R5.5m (Joburg Super Kings)
6. Sisanda Magala – R5.4m (Sunrisers Eastern Cape)
7. Heinrich Klaasen – R4.5m (Durban Super Giants)
8. Reeza Hendricks – R4.5m (Joburg Super Kings)
9. Tabraiz Shamsi – R4.3m (Paarl Royals)
10. Dwaine Pretorius – R4.1m (Durban Super Giants)