Chennai Super Kings (CSK)-owned Johannesburg franchise has roped in Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Maheesh Theekshana, Romario Shepherd and Gerald Coetzee for the inaugural edition of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) T20 League.
Among them, Moeen and Theekshana are currently a part of CSK, led by MS Dhoni, in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Du Plessis also played quite a few seasons for the Super Kings before moving to the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ahead of the 2022 edition.
Shepherd, on the other hand, has put in decent performances for the West Indies and Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL). On the back of his impressive performance, he got a contract from the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) ahead of the 2022 edition.
As far as Coetzee is concerned, he is yet to make his debut for South Africa, but has 83 wickets to his name, combining first-class, List A and T20 cricket. Gerald was picked after Du Plessis recommended him.
“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, the CEO of Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited, was quoted as saying after the signings.
“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 stated.
The CSK CEO was also delighted to have Du Plessis for the CSA T20 league after he played for around a decade for the Super Kings in the IPL.
“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 added.
Source: India Today
