Former South African star cricketer and captain AB de Villiers will feature in the inaugural Mzansi Super League (MSL) as he will for Tshwane Spartans as a Protease marquee player.
While the inaugural tournament will be played between 16 November and 16 December 2018, the Cricket South Africa (CSA) has announced the six Protease marquee players for the six participating teams on Monday.
The six Protease marquee players for MSL 2018 are AB de Villiers (Tshwane Spartans), Hashim Amla (Durban Heat), Kagiso Rabada (Jozi Stars), Imran Tahir (Nelson Mandela Bay Giants), JP Duminy (Cape Town Blitz) and Faf du Plessis (Paarl Rocks).
After announcing his retirement from the international cricket in this May, the MSL tournament will be AB’s first professional cricket consignment. His last professional cricket match was in IPL 2018 when he played for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur on May 19, 2018.
The players’ draft will take place on this Wednesday (October 17) while the CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe claimed that more than 200 international players have expressed their interest to play this tournament.
Moroe said on that, “We have received applications from over 200 top international players who expressed interest in playing in this inaugural tournament and will have their names in the hat ahead of the Player Draft process on Wednesday.”
Some of the top foreign confirmed cricketers for the upcoming draft are Chris Gayle (Windies), Dwayne Bravo (Windies), Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Jason Roy (England), Eoin Morgan (England) etc.
However, Moroe is also concerned about the fact that some international cricketers, including some Protease cricketers, will miss some parts of the tournament due to other cricket commitment clashes.
Moroe said, “There were expected challenges in the process, of course, with some players available for a particular period because of other cricket commitment clashes elsewhere, including our Protease, who also have to fulfil our tour to Australia for a One-Day International series.”
