New South Africa T20 league unveil team names and marquee players

Six sides will make up the field for the competition, which is scheduled to take run from November 16 until December 16; they are Paarl Rocks, Cape Town Blitz, Nelson Mandela Bay Giants, Tshwane Spartans, Jozi Stars and Durban Heat

The team names and high-profile players for South Africa's new T20 league have been announced.

Six sides will make up the field for the Mzansi Super League, which is scheduled to take run from November 16 until December 16; they are Paarl Rocks, Cape Town Blitz, Nelson Mandela Bay Giants, Tshwane Spartans, Jozi Stars and Durban Heat.

Matches will be played across six venues in South Africa - Wanderers, Centurion, Kingsmead, St George’s Park, Newlands and Boland Park - with each team boasting one marquee Proteas player.

AB de Villiers will represent Spartans, Kagiso Rabada joins Jozi Stars, Paarl have snapped up Faf du Plessis, Nelson Mandela Bay will have Imran Tahir in their ranks, Hashim Amla has been recruited by Durban and JP Duminy will team up with Cape Town Blitz.

In addition, the six franchises will have the chance to sign marquee overseas players when the competition's draft takes place on Wednesday.

AB de Villiers will play for Tshwane Spartans

Among the crop of global talent who have made themselves available are the England trio of Eoin Morgan, Dawid Malan and Jason Roy, West Indies stars Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo and Afghanistan legspinner Rashid Khan.

“We have receiving applications from over 200 top international players who expressed interest in playing in this inaugural tournament and will have their names in the hat ahead of the player draft process for this Wednesday,” said Cricket South Africa chief executive, Thabang Moroe.

“There were expected challenges in the process, of course, with some players available for a particular period because of other cricket commitment clashes elsewhere, including our Standard Bank Proteas, who also have to fulfil our tour to Australia for a one-day international series.”

“It was a thorough and well audited process that led to the six winning bids from our members as well as the collective contribution from all stakeholders involved that led to the final names and logos which we also had to make sure met our objectives for this event.

“What was clear throughout this definitive process was that these are completely new entities and names that will operate separately from the current franchise teams. We welcome the six new additions to the South African and international cricket family.”

WHERE THEY WILL PLAY

Cape Town Blitz - Newlands

Durban Heat - Kingsmead

Jozi Stars - Wanderers

Nelson Mandela Bay Giants - St George’s Park

Paarl Rocks - Boland Park

Tshwane Spartans - Centurion