After signing up for the auction ahead of the South African franchise T20 league’s second season, Robin Uthappa may become the first Indian player to participate in the SA20. And in still another first, Naseem Shah and four other Pakistani players might join him. The SA20’s initial season featured no players from Pakistan or India.
There are additional Pakistani players in the auction, which is scheduled for September 27 in Johannesburg, despite Uthappa being the sole Indian on the list. This comprises the all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz, Shan Masood, Usama Mir, and Usman Qadir, as well as the legspinners.
In the previous season’s auction, no Pakistani player had shown, and none of them had been selected using the wild-card system, which enabled franchises to sign up one player from outside the auction list. All six SA20 franchises are owned by owners of Indian Premier League teams, and relations between India and Pakistan — both in terms of cricket and politics — are still not good. This was partly due to the SA20 taking place during a busy home season for Pakistan, but there was also a feeling that their players would be overlooked. Since 2008, no Pakistani athlete has participated in the IPL.
Robin Uthappa Shortlisted For SA20 Auction, Might become the 1st Indian to participate
Players from India, meanwhile, hardly ever appear in T20 competitions other than the IPL because the BCCI is reluctant to permit them to do so. Uthappa, 37, last played for India in 2015, but he didn’t stop playing for India until September 2022, including in the IPL.
On the auction shortlist are 122 players from 14 different nations, and 14 of them have set their base price at the maximum Rand 850,000 (about $45,000 USD). Masood, Nawaz, and Naseem from Pakistan are among them, as are Uthappa from India, Lahiru Kumara and Angelo Mathews from Sri Lanka, Colin de Grandhomme from New Zealand, Romario Shepherd and Brandon King from the West Indies, Adam Lyth, Josh Tongue, David Payne, and Wayne Madsen from England, and Kane Richardson from Australia.
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