South Africa's SA20 franchise competition 'to override' Big Bash League
- Published
England international Moeen Ali, who has been playing in The Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix, has signed up for the SA20
South Africa's new franchise T20 competition will take precedence over Australia's Big Bash League when it comes to player availability, according to the league's commissioner Graeme Smith.
The newly-named SA20 begins on 23 January next year, when the BBL will still be in its group stage, and will run for a month.
The BBL final, meanwhile, will not be staged until 4 February.
"The players in our league who have signed up will be there [in Australia] up until the early days of January," said Smith, a former South Africa captain.
"They'll be released to come and play here, from where they'll be fully available for the South African league."
The six franchise teams have all been bought owners of Indian Premier League sides and the recruitment process has already begun.
The SA20 teams, based in Cape Town, Durban, Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), Johannesburg, Paarl and Pretoria, will each be allowed to field a maximum of four overseas players per game.
England internationals Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone have already been signed, along with West Indians Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers.
A player auction to finalise the squads will be held on 19 September.
"We've got an extensive list of international players that we're sorting out for the auction," Smith, 41, added.
"We're still finalising some of the auction details and we're sorting out the player registration because of the large number of players.
"There has been an element of pre-signing that has been taking place and the teams have a purse of $2 million (£1.7 million) that already includes the pre-signed players. A lot of work has gone into it and we're very excited with what we've done and what we can create going forward."