Faf du Plessis is set to lead Johannesburg Super Kings in the CSA’s T20 league, starting next year. Du Plessis, the former South Africa captain, has been picked by the franchise as one of its five direct signings, for US$375,000. The franchise, owned by Chennai Super Kings Sports Limited, the owners of Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, has also acquired the services of Moeen Ali, for $400,000.
Du Plessis has played a total of 100 matches for Chennai Super Kings in two stints, from 2011 to 2015, and then from 2018 to 2021. Moeen, too, became a Chennai Super Kings player in 2021.
The Johannesburg franchise has picked up another of Chennai’s 2022 players, Maheesh Theekshana ($200,000), the Sri Lankan offspinner. West Indies allrounder Romario Shepherd ($175,000) and South African fast bowler Gerald Coetzee ($50,000) have also been signed on by the team, the last of them as a development player.
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Apart from the three players – du Plessis, Moeen and Theekshana – some members of the coaching staff are also old Chennai Super Kings men. Stephen Fleming will be the head coach at Johannesburg too, while Eric Simons will be his assistant. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the franchise is also on the verge of signing Albie Morkel, the former South Africa allrounder, as part of the coaching staff. Morkel was part of Chennai Super Kings from 2008 to 2013 as a player, including when they won back-to-back IPL titles in 2010 and 2011.
The six franchises are allowed direct signings from a poor of 30 marquee names, which were finalised by CSA recently. As reported by ESPNcricinfo, the English contingent dominated the marquee list, with the pair of Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone standing to earn up to half a million dollars each.
Moeen was the third most expensive on the list, although there was no clarity until now on whether he would feature in the CSA-run league or the UAE’s ILT20, for which he had put in his name too. The two leagues will run more or less concurrently in January-February 2023.
The six franchises are allowed a squad strength of 17 players. While franchises have started individually announcing their direct signings, they will pick the remaining 12 players at an auction scheduled for September 20 this year.
They have been given an auction purse of $2 million, but the maximum salary deducted as per the rules will be $250,000. Players getting more than that prescribed salary would still get paid in full, with the amount exceeding $250,000 counted as marketing cost.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo
