James Anderson leads SA20 auction list

A Cambodian, a Ugandan, a Motswana - someone from Botswana - and a Malaysian walk into a bar. There they find 153 Englishmen, 50 West Indians, 40 Pakistanis, 36 Sri Lankans, 27 Afghans, 24 Americans, 23 Bangladeshis, 13 Indians, and 11 from each of the United Arab Emirates and Scotland.

Ten Zimbabweans, Irishmen and Dutchmen, nine New Zealanders, five Namibians, three Australians, Canadians, Nepalese and Omanis, two Malawians and Germans are also there. And 328 South Africans.

That's one big bar, you might say. It's a joke, of course. Because they're not in fact in a bar. Instead, their names are on a spreadsheet that comprises the players vying to crack the nod at the SA20 auction in Johannesburg on September 9.

Considering only 84 places are up for grabs, 699 of the 782 players who have registered for the auction are set to be disappointed. Many among the soon to be spurned 89.39% know that. Indeed, most of them won't even make it onto the final list whose services will go under the hammer. But it can't hurt to have a go. Besides, the franchises aren't going to come looking for them.

It's difficult for one name to leap from all that small print, but James Anderson's does. There it is, at No. 159 on the list, smuggled between Ben Green and Mason Crane. Did they think we wouldn't notice if they buried it among the lesser lights?

In July last year Anderson ended his Test career as unarguably the finest fast bowler England have ever produced. But he has since played 17 first-class, T20 and The Hundred matches. There's life in the old dog yet. How old?

Anderson is 43, which would make him the most elderly player in many a tournament's mix. But not the SA20, what with 46-year-young Imran Tahir also looking to land a gig.

As for current internationals, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Reece Topley, Devon Conway, Maheesh Theekshana, Shamar Joseph and Jayden Seales are some of those hoping to catch a franchise owner's chequebook. Not current but eminent are Martin Guptill, Jason Roy and Mahmudullah.

Then there's Quinton de Kock, whose international status remains strangely uncertain. And Temba Bavuma, the WTC-winning captain who hasn't played a T20 - perhaps because he has a strike rate of 123.39 in the format - since April last year. Not forgetting David Teeger, who doesn't seem to have played a match of any kind since February 2024. In October 2023 Teeger was exposed as a supporter of Israel's brutal onslaught on Gaza - which preceded him being removed as captain of South Africa's under-19 team.

There is also a cohort whose names will resonate strongly with South Africans of more than one generation. Players like Keaton Jennings, Luc Benkenstein and Rashard Gibbs, the sons of Ray Jennings, Dale Benkenstein and Herschelle Gibbs. And Brett D'Oliveira and Jarren Bacher, the grandsons of Basil D'Oliveira and Ali Bacher.

As always with franchise fandangos, much will change before the six teams spend the total of USD7.37-million still available to them to spend on players. More could change before the tournament starts at Newlands on December 26, and still more before it ends at the same ground on January 25.

Even so, and however temporarily, there's something magical about having the names of players as different from each other as James Anderson, Imran Tahir and Quinton de Kock, and who come with storied surnames like D'Oliveira and Gibbs, on the same spreadsheet.

Here's hoping that, sometime between December 26 and January 25, some of them find enough in common with each other to want to walk into a bar together. They never know who they might find there.