'A lot of retentions and several wild cards...:' Ex-Proteas all-rounder expressed his thoughts ahead of SA20 auction

The SA20 (South Africa's premier T20 cricket league) is getting ready for its fourth season and former South African all-rounder Chris Morris recently shared his views on the upcoming players auction, scheduled to take place on 9 September, 2025 in Johannesburg. With the recent rise of aggressive young talent in South African cricket, this year’s auction is expected to be the most competitive in the history of the tournament. A total of 84 spots are open and the league has added the RTM (Right to Match) card in the auction. The RTM card allows a team to retain a player they previously released by matching the highest bid for that player.

Chris Morris, expressed his thoughts on the upcoming auctions and said that the auctions are always exciting, but the SA20 is the big one because many big players are back in the pool.

“The auction is always exciting, no matter the tournament, but SA20 is the big one, with most of the players back in the pool. There have been a lot of retentions and several wild cards picked up, so it will be interesting to see how the teams go about building their squads. Some teams have plenty of money to spend, while others have already filled half their squads and don’t have much left in the purse.” he was quoted saying to SuperSport.

This means a lot of domestic players will be putting their hands up this season, and they’re likely to get opportunities because of the financial dynamics at play. I’ve already started my homework, looking at the teams, the squads, and who’s available, and I have a few ideas of where players might land. It’s a great time of the year, and SA20 is going to be even bigger this season," he added.

Morris further tipped about South African batter, Aiden Markram, who is not retained by Sunrisers Eastern Cape (his previous team in SA20) as one of the most in-demand players in the upcoming auction. “Sunrisers haven’t retained him, but they do have a right-to-match card, meaning they can match the final bid for him and retain his services. That opens the door for mind games — other teams could bid aggressively to push his price high enough to make it difficult for the Sunrisers to bring him back.”

"Two teams stand out to me: MI Cape Town, which would solve their captaincy question — not that Rashid Khan is doing a bad job — but having a successful local international captain at number four would be a big boost, especially since they’ve released Rassie van der Dussen, leaving a vacancy at number three. The other is Pretoria Capitals, who have one of the largest remaining purses. He’s a local player, would fill their captaincy role, slot in at number three, and bring strong leadership after Rilee Rossouw’s stint last year. Either way, Aiden Markram is going to be hot property," Morris added.

According to reports, last year, about 600 players signed up for the auction, and it is expected that the number could be even higher this year. Several big names including Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow are already confirmed by the teams for the tournament.