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Cape Town - JP Duminy has revealed that the Proteas will not be available for the start of the new T20 league competition, which gets underway in November.
The inaugural T20 league will run from November 9 to December 16, which means that the Proteas' ODI squad will not be available for the start of the tournament.
The Proteas travel to Australia to play in 3 ODIs and a sole T20I - with the T20I scheduled on November 17.
Speaking at the Cape Cobras season launch on Wednesday, Duminy admitted that some Proteas players could miss the T20 competition.
"If I go to Australia, quite a few guys will miss the first two weeks of the new competition," said Duminy at Newlands.
Originally called the T20 Global League, the tournament was scrapped just weeks before it was due to be launched at the end of 2017.
The tournament is due to get underway in November of this year, but Cricket South Africa (CSA) has been running into stumbling block after stumbling block along the way with SuperSport pulling out as CSA's equity partners in the event.
READ: SuperSport, CSA fail to agree on local T20 tournament
At least four of the previous Global League owners are reportedly threatening legal action against CSA after they were informed that there were no guarantees that they would be owners in the new tournament.
There were doubts on whether this competition will go ahead, but last week CSA announced that the board voted unanimously in favour of the T20 tournament.
However, Duminy was optimistic about the running of the new competition and the opportunities it would bring.
"If it can get up and running, there are definitely opportunities for it to be successful. It's a new craze around the cricket fraternity having an internationally recognised local T20 league and it's unfortunate that we missed out last year," said the Proteas all-rounder at Newlands.
"I know there's a big drive to make it happen this year so I'm hopeful that it will happen and strengthen our domestic cricket and bring back the crowds in the stadium. And that is the most important part of our domestic system. You look back 10-15 years when I started, the amount of people that came to watch domestic cricket was immense and guys enjoyed playing in front of those big crowds.
"Hopefully this (tournament) will create more opportunities for them to come out," he said.
Meanwhile, Cape Cobras coach Ashwell Prince revealed that the new league will not have any affect when it comes to managing his team.
"No I don't think the T20 league will have an effect on us," said the former Proteas opening batsman.
"Every player, especially the younger players, it becomes another platform for them to showcase their potential. It's a great opportunity for players to rub shoulders with some of the best players in the world. Our (Cobras) players get an opportunity to play with our international players that they don't often get to play with. As a player, I only see the positives."
