Africa-Press – South-Africa. Sunrisers Eastern Cape bowling coach Dale Steyn says the franchise was happy to spend big on several South Africans at the SA20 auction in Cape Town.
The Sunrisers Eastern Cape made several big signings, including purchasing the most expensive player Tristan Stubbs at Monday’s SA20 auction at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Stubbs, who had a base price of R175 000, was involved in a bidding war between MI Cape Town and the Sunrisers. Steyn’s Sunrisers signed the 22-year-old Stubbs for a whopping R9.2 million in the second set.
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The Sunrisers also captured Proteas all-rounder Marco Jansen for R6.1 million and signed fast bowler Sisanda Magala for R5.4 million. Another millionaire in the Sunrisers camp was former Proteas batter Jon-Jon Smits, who fetched R2.3 million.
Steyn says the Sunrisers’ main objective under head coach Adrian Birrell, who was not present at the auction, was to focus on getting a few big South African players.
“That was part of the plan. We wanted to focus primarily on the South Africans and wanted to base the team on mainly local players,” Steyn told reporters at the CTICC on Monday.
“We’ve got Adrian Birrell as our head coach and he is over in England right now, and he put word down on what he called ‘clever picks’ on players that he wanted to get over here, so we’re happy that we got a guy like (James) Fuller.
“He noted a couple of guys and we managed to get them, which was great. But yeah, we focussed on the South Africans and we were happy to spend big on them.
“A guy like Tristan Stubbs is amazing, everyone is very excited about him and the amount that he went for. We’re very happy to have paid that for him.”
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Former Proteas speedster Steyn says he is looking forward to working alongside Magala after playing with him at the Cape Town Blitz in the previous Mzansi Super League.
“I’ve been a big fan of Magala for a long time. Lungi (Ngidi) went fairly cheap early on, but Magala is someone that has been on my radar for a long time,” said Steyn.
“Since I’ve played with him, I’ve been pushing for him. We focused on kind of the coastal players, if you look at our squad, then you would have noticed that, so we are very happy.”
Sunrisers Eastern Cape squad:
Aiden Markram, Ottneil Baartman, Marco Jansen, Tristan Stubbs, Sisanda Magala, Junaid Dawood, Mason Crane, Jon-Jon Smuts, Jordan Cox, Adam Rossington, Roelof van der Merwe, Marques Ackerman, James Fuller, Brydon Carse, Sarel Erwee, Aya Gqamane, Tom Abell
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