South African batter Faf Du Plessis will lead Johannesburg Super Kings in the inaugural T20 League by Cricket South Africa (CSA) set to start from next year onwards. According to ESPNCricinfo website, the franchise has picked up Du Plessis as one of their five direct signings for $375,000.


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The franchise is owned by Chennai Super Kings Sports Limited, the owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings. The side has also acquired the services of Moeen Ali (for $400,000). Du Plessis has represented CSK in 100 matches in two stints, first from 2011-15 then 2018-21.



Moeen had also joined CSK in 2021. The Johannesburg franchise has also picked up another CSK 2022 player, Maheesh Theekshana (for $200,000), a Sri Lankan offspinner. It has also picked up West Indies allrounder Romario Shepherd (for $175,000) and South African pacer Gerald Coetzee (for $50,000), with the pacer being a development player.


The coaching staff of the franchise also involves old men from CSK. Stephen Fleming will serve as its head coach, with Eric Simons as his assistant coach. The franchise is also on verge of signing former South African all-rounder Albie Morkel, who represented CSK from 2008-2013. England players are dominating the marquee players list, with stars Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone standing to earn up half a million dollars each.


Moeen is the third most expensive on the list. He has signed up for UAE`s International League T20 as well. There is no clarity if he will feature in CSA’s league or that of UAE as both will run more or less concurrently in January-February 2023. The six franchises are allowed direct signing from a list of 30 marquee players which CSA finalised recently.


They are allowed to have a squad strength of 17 players. They will pick the remaining twelve players at auctions scheduled for September 20 this year. All franchises 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 this amount will be paid in full but the amount exceeding $250,000 will be counted as a marketing cost.


(with ANI inputs)