England all-rounder Ben Stokes who widely skips the domestic leagues around the world is set to feature for MI Capetown in the SA20 2025 edition.
Ben Stokes is expected to feature for the MI franchise in the SA20 league next January after being offered up to £800,000. The SA20 2025 will be the third edition of its kind, a franchise Twenty20 cricket league in South Africa.
Ben Stokes is set to sign £800,000 deal with MI Capetown
The league follows the same format as the famous Indian Premier League and moreover, all six teams are fully or partially managed by the IPL franchises. Earlier in June, the organising board confirmed that the SA20 2025 will be played between 9 January and 8 February next year.
Though Ben Stokes hasn’t played any T20 format matches for quite a long period his achievements in the limited-over format games are not quite easier to forget. His match-winning unbeaten 52 in the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Final against Pakistan made him a notable player of the format.
Stokes was also named the most valuable player in the 2017 IPL. This will not be his first T20 league signing, before the SA20 league, Stokes has featured in the Indian Premier League, The Hundred, Big Bash League, and many other reputed domestic league games. ALSO READ: Ben Stokes to Play for Superchargers in The Hundred Competition
His stint with Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023 was his recent T20 league signing. CSK roped Ben Stokes for INR. 16.25 Crore in the IPL 2023 auction but played only a couple of matches due to a knee injury and skipped the 2024 edition due to workload management.
Ben Stokes’s recent return to full bowling fitness has made him even more valuable. Apart from increasing his value in the league formats, MI’s offer to Stokes also strengthens the England Test captain’s negotiating position with the England & Wales Cricket Board about his new central contract.
Last year, Stokes turned down ECB’s multi-year contract, instead preferring to sign on for only 12 months deal, from October 2023.
At the time Rob Key, England’s managing director, explained that Stokes believed that “he’ll be in a stronger position” to negotiate a more lucrative deal this year.
As Ben Stokes only features for the Test side for England, his participation in the SA20 2025 won’t affect any of his international commitments.
If Stokes inks the deal with the MI franchise he will miss England’s five-match T20 series in India. As Ben Stokes is not currently involved in England’s T20I side the deal won’t make any impact in his international calendar.
The SA20 2025 will be played during a break in England’s Test schedule. England will play three-match series in Pakistan and New Zealand before Christmas and have no test series in their schedule until the 2025 home summer.
