SA20

SA20, known as the Betway SA20 for sponsorship reasons, is a Twenty20 franchise cricket tournament in South Africa, organised by Cricket South Africa (CSA) and first contested during the 2023 season. It is contested by six teams based in cities around the country. The first winners of the tournament were Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

History
Cricket South Africa established the franchise T20 Global League in 2017. The inaugural season was deferred by a year due to the lack of a broadcast deal and title sponsor and in June 2018 was replaced by the Mzansi Super League, a league featuring six CSA-owned teams. Both the leagues became unsuccessful. The MSL ran for only two seasons, the 2020 and 2021 editions being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

SA20 was established by CSA in 2022 through a newly formed entity, Africa Cricket Development (Pty) Limited (ACD). CSA is the majority stakeholder in ACD with a 50% share, while broadcaster SuperSport has a 30% share and former Indian Premier League (IPL) Chief Operating Officer Sundar Raman, the remaining 20%. All six of the teams were bought by franchises from the IPL. In July 2022, CSA announced that the One Day International series against Australia due to be played in January 2023 would be cancelled in order for SA20 to go ahead.

In August 2022, Graeme Smith was announced as the commissioner for the tournament. Later in the month, the marquee players for the first season were announced.

In December 2023 Cricket South Africa announced that it would send a makeshift Test team, comprising players with little or no Test cricket experience, to its scheduled two-Test tour of New Zealand in February 2024, to allow its best players to remain in South Africa to compete in the SA20. The decision was widely criticised.

Organisation
The six teams play each other twice in the group stages of the competition before the top four sides move to the semi-final stages.

Teams acquire players through an auction as opposed to a draft, making it the second cricket league in the world after the Indian Premier League to do so. Each team purchases a squad of 17 players, with the opportunity of signing up to five players prior to the auction: three international players; one South African international player; and one uncapped South African player.

Teams
The six teams are all owned by existing Indian Premier League franchise owners.

Teams' performances

 * C: champions
 * RU: runner-up
 * SF or PO: team qualified for the semi-final stage of the competition

Prize money
Cricket South Africa increased the prize money for the SA20 to a total of $890,000. The prize money will be split between the teams as follows:


 * R 16,250,000– To the Runner up
 * R 32,500,000 – To the Champion of the season

The total prize money in the South Africa T20 League for the year 2024 SA20 season, a total prize money of 70 million Rand was awarded.

Broadcasting
SuperSport, Sky Sports and the Sports18 network broadcast the tournament in South Africa, the United Kingdom and India respectively.

, Betway SA20 and Sky Sports have a five-year contract to broadcast the T20 cricket league.

Records and statistics
Last updated on 6 May 2024