Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers among marquee players in South Africa's upcoming T20 league

Johannesburg: Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis were among eight marquee Protea players announced on Friday by Cricket South Africa (CSA) to represent the franchises in the first two editions of the new T20 Global Destination League starting later this year. This follows the announcement last week of the eight marquee foreign players. Each marquee Protea player will be allocated a new franchise team based in the city he has either been historically associated with or with which he can build a strong association. [caption id=“attachment_3397788” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers. AFP[/caption] The other five marquee Protea players are Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir. “The selection of our own South African marquee players has been very exciting. And it will be even more exciting when we engage fans to help us to allocate the ‘hometown hero’ to each franchise team,” said CSA Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat. “This announcement is another major step towards establishing our new T20 League in South Africa. “We must not understate the world class quality of our own players. They are household names across the world and our fans in South Africa will finally get the chance to see them compete against one another at home. Together with the international marquee players announced last week, the Protea stars will add great value to the new franchise teams they will represent,” added Lorgat. As announced last week, each franchise team will also be allocated an international marquee player. This means that each team will start with two marquee players named in their 17-man squad. The rest of the squad will be assembled by the team owners and coach in a player draft system. The process of acquiring team ownership is presently underway with the closing date for bidder proposals being 28 April.