Cape Town secure deal for Chris Gayle, Pietersen set to play in Port Elizabeth

With the first ever edition of the South Africa’s Global League is set to be played between November 4 and December 16, the franchises are prepping through their respective signings. The T20 Global League mini-draft took place on Saturday, where each of the franchises was allocated their marquee cricketer for the flagship event. The main draft, in Cape Town, will see each team add another 16 players to their squads.

Kieron Pollard was the first player to be picked in the draft by the Bloem City Blazers. The mini draft also saw veterans Kevin Pietersen secured by Nelson Mandela Bay Stars, while one of biggest batting powerhouse of T20 cricket Chris Gayle went to the Cape Town Knight Riders franchise.

The draft procedure:

A Draft Matrix was prepared and provided to all the teams on August 21 to allow them enough time to prepare ahead. Each Team was allowed up to two minutes to pick their player for that round in the 16 round draft.

A Draft selection allows an even distribution of players through the teams, as opposed to the signing of a contract or an auction. Each franchise was allowed two chances to pick the first player of that particular round of Draft, with a stipulated after every four rounds of selection.

The players who are eligible for the main draft are those who entered a binding agreement to enter the Draft. With the franchises already having been allocated a marquee Proteas player, each side now has two big names on their books

Given below are the updated squads of all the eight franchises after the mini draft.

Bloem City Blazers: David Miller, Kieron Pollard

Joburg Giants: Kagiso Rabada, Brendon McCullum

Cape Town Knight Riders: JP Duminy, Chris Gayle

Durban Qalanaders: Hashim Amla, Eoin Morgan

Pretoria Mavericks: AB de Villiers, Dwayne Bravo

Nelson Mandela Bay Stars: Imran Tahir, Kevin Pietersen

Benoni Zalmi: Quinton de Kock, Jason Roy

Stellenbosch Monarchs: Faf du Plessis, Lasith Malinga