The SA20, also known as the Betway SA20 for sponsorship reasons, is a

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

franchise

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

tournament in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, organised by

Cricket South Africa Cricket South Africa aka CSA is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South ...

(CSA) and first contested during the 2023 season. It is contested by six teams based in cities around the country. Sunrisers Eastern Cape won the first two editions of the tournament.

History

Cricket

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 The Mzansi Super League (MSL) was a Twenty20 cricket (T20) franchise league held in South Africa. The competition was established in 2018 by Cricket South Africa (CSA) as a replacement for the failed T20 Global League, but only two editions wer ...

, 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 The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. 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 The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...

(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 One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

series against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

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 New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in February 2024, to allow its best players to remain in South Africa to compete in the SA20. The decision was widely criticised. In January 2025, Cricket South Africa announced the windows for the competition for 2026, 2027, and 2028.

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 third cricket league in the world after the

and International League T20 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.

Prize money

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.

Teams

The six teams are all owned by existing

franchise owners.

Tournament season and results

Finals

Number of titles

Team performances

* C: champions * RU: runner-up * 3rd: team won the 3rd place playoff. A third-place playoff only took place in 2024 * 4th: team lost the 3rd place playoff * SF or PO: team qualified for the semi-final or playoff stage of the competition

Position of teams in SA20

* indicates qualified for playoffs *(C) = Eventual champion; (R) = Runner-up.

All time standings

Records and statistics

Broadcasting

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

References

External links

* {{Twenty20 cricket domestic competitions Cricket in South Africa Twenty20 cricket leagues South African domestic cricket competitions Sports leagues established in 2022 Professional cricket leagues Cricket leagues in South Africa SA20