Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batsman Faf du Plessis will be leading the CSK owned Johannesburg Super Kings team in the inaugural edition of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) T20 League to be played in 2023.
The 38-year-old Faf has been signed by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Sports Ltd for a price of $375,000. Faf du Plessis also got a chance to play for Chennai Super Kings in IPL. He was with RCB in the most recent season of IPL. Earlier he was involved with CSK as well.
As per the rules, all the six franchises can make five signings before the auction that is to happen. The marquee list of 30 international players has been approved by the governing body. Teams must include one local player as well as one local uncapped player in their initial core group of five players states the rules.
As part of their initial recruitment, the CSK owned Johannesburg franchise signed some of the players associated with CSK in the IPL, namely Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana, for sums of $400,000 and $200,000 respectively. The England all-rounder is the third costliest player in the marquee list and it should be noted that he had also put his name up for the upcoming UAE T20 League too, but won’t be able to play there since both the leagues will be played in the same window.
Other than the above mentioned 3, West Indies all-rounder Romario Shepherd has been signed for $175,000, while uncapped youngster Gerald Coetzee signed on with $50,000 to complete the players set.
It must be noted that each franchise is given a salary cap of $2 million to assemble a squad of 17 players. Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming will be the head coach of Johannesburg franchise as well while Eric Simmons will be there as his assistant.