New Delhi, Sep 12 South African legend Allan Donald is happy that the growth and development of Proteas youngsters will give the national team head coach, Shukri Conrad, a headache while selecting the final squad which will travel to the subcontinent to play in the 2026 T20 World Cup.
South Africa fell agonisingly short when they lost to India in the T20 World Cup finals of the 2024 edition. Having ended their ICC drought after defeating Australia in the 2025 World Test Championship final, the Proteas will be a force to be reckoned with, with a young core ready to take on the cricketing world.
As part of the build-up to SA20 Season 4, Donald shared exclusive insights on team strategies, marquee signings, and emerging players to watch during a special interaction facilitated by SA20.
"That is exactly what we want to see in this country. Those youngsters – I mentioned a couple here now (Dewald Brevis); he has already picked himself. (Lhuan-dre) Pretorius is already playing and getting exposure; we had spoken about Mulder establishing himself now. Connor Esterhuizen has come from nowhere and has put his hand up and said, 'Pick me.' (Kwena) Maphaka is already in, and (Andile) Simelane has had a taste of it. You still have guys like Ottneil Baartman; he's been a little bit out of favor, Kyle Verreynne has got an opportunity to say, 'I want to be on that flight.'
"That's exactly what we want to see, the strength of what this competition brings. The SA20 is just going to bring some guys through, and much quicker. South Africa's got really nice problems, and that's exactly what this league is doing, which is exposing young cricketers. Everyone else has got an opportunity to say to Shukri Conrad, 'I want to be part of your squad.' That's exactly what we want to see, making his job a lot harder.
"It just keeps growing faster and the crowds are getting bigger. I'm so, so proud to see how this whole competition is developing and the standard of players that are especially the young babies that is slowly but surely and quickly coming through. That's what we want to see,” said Donald to IANS in the virtual conference.
During the SA20 season 4 auction, a mega R116.9 million (approx. Rs 59 crore) was spent on South African players, which included R22.8 million (approx. INR 11.4 crore) on 12 Under-23 players, with 22-year-old Dewald Brevis bringing in the big bucks (R16.5 million) to become the most expensive player bought in the SA20 auction history.
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