Shock as Saqib Mahmood goes unsold in SA20 T20 auction
English cricketer Richard Gleeson fetched the highest price at the SA20 T20 cricket auction yesterday as fellow international Saqib Mahmood went unsold.
The 36-year-old Lancashire cricketer – who last played for England in 2022 – sold to Sunrisers Eastern Cape for R2.3m (£99,600) after a bidding war in yesterday’s auction, which helped the six competing teams fill their rosters after the conclusion of the retention phase – where players such as Ben Stokes were kept.
But Mahmood, who recently earned a call-up to the England white-ball squad for their series against Australia, was unable to find a buyer having set his reserve price – alongside Gleeson and fellow Englishman Josh Hull – at R1.5m.
January’s SA20 will be the third instalment of the South African Twenty20 competition that has six teams all with affiliations with IPL (Indian Premier League) franchises.
Gleeson will be joined at Sunrisers Eastern Cape by Tom Abell and Zak Crawley while other English players include Will Jacks at Pretoria Capitals, Joe Root at Paarl Royals, Stokes at MI Cape Town, Moeen Ali at the Joburg Super Kings and Chris Woakes at Durban’s Super Giants.
England bowler Matthew Potts, who had a strong summer, was also unsold, as were Somerset’s Tom Lammonby and Ireland’s Josh Little.
The second season of SA20 gets underway on 9 January with top performers often finding their way to other franchise leagues.