The one disappointment that stood out to everybody was Bavuma: Graeme Smith 

Bavuma remained unsold in the inaugural SA20 auction (PC: Twitter)

South Africa's homegrown league, SA20, set the ball rolling as the auction for the inaugural edition of the tournament took place on September 19.

As many as 314 players went under the hammer as six teams - MI Cape Town, Pretoria Capitals, Paarl Royals, Durban Super Giants, Joburg Super Kings and Sunrisers Eastern Cape - engaged in a bidding war.

Fans were in for a lot of surprises, but a rather expected development that came out of the auction was no bid for Temba Bavuma. Setting his base price at R850,000, Bavuma went unsold twice as he did not attract even a single bid from any of the six franchises.

The South Africa white-ball captain was marred by an elbow injury recently, however, will be seen leading the Proteas in the upcoming T20 World Cup.

As the league, we don’t get involved with that decision-making: Smith

Meanwhile, SA20 commissioner Graeme Smith had his say on Bavuma's auction snub, clarifying that the team organisers could not have pushed for the inclusion of the 32-year-old.

"There are so many players that missed out but there were also some great stories that came out. Obviously, the one disappointment that stood out to everybody was Temba. We’re disappointed but we don’t get involved in that,

"It’s independent of SA20. All those selections lie with the six franchises. As the league, we don’t get involved with that decision-making. If they had requested Temba, then we would have facilitated whatever was required for that conversation.

"We’re disappointed for Temba, and we hope that he takes this as an opportunity to prove people wrong and goes and gets tons of runs and shows his work," 

The first season of the SA20 is planned for January-February next year. Six sides, having a pool of 17 players, will fight for the trophy.

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