SA20 2025/26 Retention: List of retained players revealed

The two-time SA20-winning captain for the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Aiden Markram, will head into the auction of the SA20 season for 2025/26. He opted for the decision after asking the franchise not to retain him. Even though the franchise will have the option to get him back, using the right to match card. He was the third leading run-getter of the last season, where his side ended as the runner-up.

SA20, which is now three seasons old, has seen several marquee players being either retained or picked by the franchise in the pre-signed category. Some of the big names in the overseas lot include Nicholas Pooran, Rashid Khan, Sunil Narine, Jos Buttler, and Andre Russell. The administrators decided that every side could retain a maximum of six players from the short history.

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For the first time, a wildcard option has been added which will allow the franchises to pick one player- domestic or international- for a price, which is outside the given purse. This will be the biggest auction of the event since its launch in 2022, with 72 out of a total of 102 places available for six sides to fill up. The salary cap has increased to Rand 41 million from Rand 39.1 million.

SA20 2025/26 retention: Six franchises revealed list of retained players

Unlike the previous editions of the SA20, where the event clashed with the ILT20 and created issues on the availability of the star players, both competitions will not overlap on this occasion as the SA20 will begin on Boxing Day (December 26) while the ILT20 window has fallen between December 02 and January 04.

This is the following list of players retained by all six franchises of the competition.

MI Cape Town

Retained: Trent Boult, Rashid Khan, Ryan Rickelton, George Linde, and Corbin Bosch

Pre-signing: Nicholas Pooran

Wild-card: Kagiso Rabada

Sunrisers Eastern Cape

Pre-signing: Jonny Bairstow, AM Ghazanfar, Adam Milne

Retained: Tristan Stubbs

Wild Card: Marco Jansen

Johannesburg Super Kings

Retained: Faf du Plessis.

Wildcard- Donovan Ferreira 

Pre-signing: James Vince, Richard Gleeson, and Akeal Hosein

Pretoria Capitals

Pre-signing: Andre Russell, Will Jacks, and Sherfane Rutherford

Paarl Royals

Retentions: Lhuan-de-Pretorious, David Miller, and Bjorn Fortuin

Pre-signing: Sikandar Raza and Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman

Wild-card: Rubin Hermann. 

Durban Super Giants

Pre-signing: Sunil Narine and Jos Buttler

Retained: Noor Ahmed

Wildcard: Heinrich Klassen