CSA asks SA20 franchises to fill the Wildcard players' slots by December 30

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has urged the franchises to sign Wildcard players by December 30 for the inaugural edition of the SA20. At the same time, no upper limit has been set as far as paying the new player’s fees is concerned.

Meanwhile, it has been learned that a sum of R175,000 should be the minimum fee. The SA20 action gets underway on January 10, 2023 with all the six participating teams owned by high-profile IPL franchises.

Each Franchisee may increase its Registered Squad for the 2023 Season to 18: Reports

The original salary cap was priced at $2 million on the basis of the auction which was held in Cape Town on September 19. However, it all changed when CSA decided to introduce the Wildcard rule.

As per this rule, wildcard player can be a representative from South Africa, any of the unsigned overseas players or even players who were not a part of the auction may be signed.

"Each Franchisee may increase its Registered Squad for the 2023 Season to 18 Players through the selection and contracting of an additional Player. The Wildcard Player may either be a South African Player or an Overseas Player”, a report in Cricbuzz read.

"The Wildcard Player need not have been registered for the Player Auction. Each Franchisee shall accordingly be permitted to have a maximum of 8 Overseas Players in its Registered Squad (if a Wildcard player is taken by the Franchise). The maximum number of Overseas Players (currently 4) on the field of play at any time during any Match remains unchanged (sic)," it added.

"These Wildcard Rules form part of the Regulations with which all Franchisees, as per their Franchise Team License and Playing Agreement ("Franchise Agreement") must comply, and should be read in conjunction with, the Player Regulations. Unless otherwise defined herein, defined terms shall have the meaning assigned to them in the Player Regulations and Franchise Agreement,” it further added.

When the Wildcard Player rule was implemented, CSA ensured that there will not be any involvement of the regulators during the recruitment process and more importantly, the salary cap of the players will not be affected in any manner.

Meanwhile, SA20 will be following the same IPL rule of fielding overseas players in the tournament. According to this rule a maximum of four foreign players can be selected in a team’s playing XI for a particular match.