The list of players who received national contracts from Cricket South Africa (CSA) was announced on Monday. A notable omission was wicketkeeper-batsman, Heinrich Klaasen.
Sixteen players were granted contracts by CSA, with four of them being awarded contracts for the first time. These four players were fast bowler Anrich Nortje, left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks, batsman Rassie van der Dussen, and all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius. Nortje had made his Test debut against India last year, while the other three had all made their Test debuts in the recent series against England.
Four players who had contracts last season were left out of the contract list. These were Vernon Philander and Hashim Amla (who have both retired from international cricket), Dale Steyn (who has retired from Test cricket but is still available for South Africa in white-ball cricket), and Theunis de Bruyn.
Klaasen’s omission will raise eyebrows as he was South Africa’s stand-out performer in the recent one-day international series against Australia, being dismissed only once while scoring nearly 250 runs, which included an unbeaten maiden century in the first match. The fact that he can also keep wicket could take some pressure off Quinton de Kock, who has, in recent times, captained, opened the batting, and kept wicket in the one-day XI.
South Africa is due to tour Sri Lanka and West Indies between May and August but these tours have been thrown into doubt because of the global Covid-19 crisis. Already a series of one-day internationals that South Africa was due to play in India were called off as the world battles with the disease.
The full list of players contracted for next season by CSA is as follows: Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, and Rassie van der Dussen.