The Chennai Super Kings-owned Johannesburg franchise on Sunday announced the signings of Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Maheesh Theekshana, Romario Shepherd and Gerald Coetzee for the inaugural season of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) T20 League. The inaugural edition of the CSA T20 League is scheduled to be played in January-February 2023 and all the six franchises in the tournament have been acquired by current IPL team owners. "As per the rules of CSA, we are eligible to take four players from the contracted list of players who are available... one marquee player from South Africa. From the balance three, not more than two can be from one country," K. S Viswanathan, CEO of CSK Cricket Limited was quoted as saying by Sportstar.
"We have decided to pick Faf, Moeen, Maheesh and Romario as the four players who have been contracted by Cricket South Africa. We are also allowed to take one development player from South Africa. We have decided on Gerald, as recommended by Faf," he added.
"Faf has been a backbone of Chennai Super Kings in the IPL for the last 10 years. He has been one of the most consistent players for our team. We were not fortunate to pick him during the last auction in the IPL. We were looking for an opportunity and that came up in the CSA T20 League. We are happy that we got Faf back with the Super Kings family. It will be a very good opportunity for Faf to come back and do as well as he did for the Chennai Super Kings. His experience as South African player and captain, knowing the conditions, will be invaluable. I'm sure that with his entry into the team, we should have a good future," Viswanathan said.
While Johannesburg have been bought by the CSK owners, MI Cape Town is the sister franchise of Mumbai Indians. Meanwhile. Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), Paarl and Pretoria are owned by Lucknow Super Giants, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals respectively.