Former Proteas fast bowler Dale Steyn says the Sunrisers Eastern Cape went into the SA20 auction aiming to buy some big-name South Africans.

The Sunrisers paid a whopping R9.2-million for 22-year-old Proteas batsman Tristan Stubbs, while also picking up Proteas fast bowlers Marco Jansen (R6.1m) and Sisanda Magala (R5.4m) and former Proteas batsman Jon-Jon Smuts (R2.3m) for significant amounts.

Steyn said this “was part of the plan” under head coach Adrian Birrell, who was in England when the auction took place.

“We wanted to focus primarily on the South Africans and wanted to base the team on mainly local players,” Steyn told reporters.

“Adrian put word down on what he called ‘clever picks’ on players that he wanted to get over here, so we’re happy that we got a guy like James Fuller.

“He noted a couple of guys and we managed to get them, which was great. But, yeah, we focused on the South Africans and we were happy to spend big on them.

“A guy like Tristan Stubbs is amazing, everyone is very excited about him and the amount that he went for. We’re very happy to have paid that for him.”

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Steyn said he had “been a big fan of Magala for a long time”.

He added: “Lungi [Ngidi] went fairly cheap early on, but Magala is someone who has been on my radar for a long time.

“Since I’ve played with him, I’ve been pushing for him. We kind of focused on the coastal players – if you look at our squad, then you would have noticed that – so we are very happy.”