MI Cape Town announced a star-studded overseas roster ahead of the third edition of the SA20. Ben Stokes, the England Test captain, has joined the impressive list of the English exodus to SA20 and will be taking part in the T20 tournament for the first time. Last month, the Telegraph reported that Stokes was roped in by MI Cape Town for a massive sum of £ 800,000 (roughly INR 8.6 crore).
The box-office all-rounder has joined the likes of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Will Smeed, Ollie Pope and Chris Woakes on the list of England cricketers being signed up before the auction.
Stokes will be joined by Afghanistan all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai and Trent Boult at MI Cape Town among new signings for the 2025 season. "MI, MI Emirates, MI New York and now MI Cape Town. I’ll be donning the Blue-and-Gold colours in the upcoming edition of SA20. Playing at the scenic Newlands is going to be special. I know, It’s going to be Lekker," Boult said on joining a fourth MI franchise having played in the IPL, ILT20 and the USA's Major League Cricket.
These signings meant that Kieron Pollard, who led MICT in 2024, Sam Curran, Olly Stone and Liam Livingstone were not retained as part of the overseas squad. Rashid Khan, Chris Benjamin and Nuwan Thushara have all been retained.
Stokes, who recently took part in the Hundred after three years, hasn't played T20 cricket for England since the T20 World Cup 2022 win. However, Stokes has plied trade in the IPL since then, once for CSK in 2023 and now for the first time in SA20.
The third edition of the SA20 is set to take place from January 9 to February 8 in 2025. The auction is scheduled for September.
Meanwhile, Mujeeb ur Rahman has joined Joe Root, Sam Hain, Jacob Bethell and Dinesh Karthik at Paarl Royals for the new season of SA20. Mujeeb like many others has decided to play in SA20 instead of the UAE's International League T20.
