Nine England players have so far confirmed they will spend the northern hemisphere winter in the blazing South African sun for the second season of the SA20 league, which begins in January 2024, officials confirmed on Thursday.

Some of England's big names head the list of new players to be signed for the 2024 edition of the SA20 league. Moeen Ali joined runners-up Joburg Super Kings last season, Liam Livingstone and Tom Banton are at MI Cape Town and Dawid Malan and Liam Dawson have joined the reigning champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

Livingstone will make his first SA 20 appearance after missing the previous season through injury. Moeen, Banton, Dawson and Malan will also be there for the first time as they were all involved in the ILT20 in the UAE during the final season of the tournament.

According to a report, the tournament is likely to clash with England's Test series against India in 2024. As such, Moeen and Curran may have to leave mid-tournament with chances of the duo being selected for the tour.

Meanwhile, the pre-signing window for SA20 ahead of the September draft is closed. However, the six teams still have until July 21 to trade South African players, retain foreign players from their 2023 squads or buy players on multi-year deals.

Some of the star players carried over from the SA20 franchises were Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Dewald Brevis and Sam Curran (MI Cape Town), Faf du Plessis and Gerald Coetzee (Super Kings), Quinton de Kock and Kyle Mayers (Super Giants ), David Miller and Jos Buttler (Pairl Royals) and Anrich Nortje (Pretoria Capitals).

With the upfront commitments effectively completed and completed, teams have until July 31 to trade South African players, retain foreign players and also buy out cricketers - both South African and foreign. The bought out players would then return to the auction again.

The second season of SA20 will also see an extra game in the later stages - a mirror image of the knockout stage of the IPL - and a R5.1 million (approx. US$276,000) pay increase per team. Each of the six teams can also sign an additional player, bringing the total squad size to 19. The additional player must be a South African aged 22 or under who has never played in SA20.