LONDON: The Player Draft for the inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam took place at a gala ceremony in London Heathrow Airport on Friday.
England’s ICC Cricket World Cup winning captain Eoin Morgan joined a host of dignitaries and owners from each of the six franchises, including Indian great and one of the board members of league’s advisory committee Anil Kumble, Pakistan’s Babar Azam, Afghanistan leg-spin star Rashid Khan, England’s Tymal Mills and South African leg-spin star Imran Tahir, for the tournament which will take place in the Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland from 30th August until 22nd September.
Meanwhile, all six jerseys were unveiled on behalf of the official kit supplier TYKA, ahead of the draft.
It will be a homecoming of sorts for north Dubliner Morgan with the 32-year-old set to represent the Dublin Chiefs. The former underage and senior Leinster and Ireland representative, who recently became England’s most capped One-Day International (ODI) player during their historic march to the Cricket World Cup title, said that he was proud to be selected for the new franchise.
Other delegates included some of the coaches for the franchises Mark O’Donnell (head coach, Amsterdam Knights), Herschelle Gibbs (head coach, Rotterdam Rhinos), Ian Pont (head coach, Belfast Titans) and Mark Ramprakash (head coach, Edinburgh Rocks). They joined representatives from each of the six franchises, including owners and commercial partners.
The coaches of the other franchises were also confirmed; Daniel Vettori has been named head coach of the Dublin Chiefs, while Lance Klusener will lead the Glasgow Giants coaching team.
In all, 33 matches will take place in Amsterdam, Edinburgh and the finals due to take place in Dublin following the closing round of pool matches including semi-finals (20th September) and finals (22nd September).
Speaking in the aftermath of the Euro T20 Slam Player Draft, Prashant Mishra, Woods Entertainment, promoter of the league, commented: “The Euro T20 Slam will see some of the world’s biggest names descend on Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Dublin. It has been a busy period over the last few weeks for each of the new franchise owners. But with the conclusion of the Player Draft today, the teams and fans can ramp up their planning as we prepare to visit three vibrant cricketing strongholds.”
“An important element of the Euro T20 Slam is the promotion and development of cricket in each of the three countries, and I would like to acknowledge and thank each of the three boards for nominating such a strong list of local talent. I have no doubt that we will see some outstanding emerging talent from the three countries who will relish the opportunity to train and play alongside some global icons,” Mishra added.
Kumble added: “It’s exciting to be a part of the Euro T20 Slam as an advisor to the league. It is encouraging to see the growth of cricket worldwide, and I am excited to witness teams from Netherlands, Ireland and Scotland competing against each other. It will be a great opportunity for local talent to rub shoulders with some of the best cricketing talent worldwide. I look forward to contributing towards making the inaugural Euro T20 Slam a grand success.”
The Euro T20 Slam Draft was hosted by Darren Gough and Ridhima Pathak.
Tickets for the Euro T20 Slam will go on sale on Ticketmaster by the start of August.
EURO T20 SLAM SQUADS:
AMSTERDAM KNIGHTS: Shane Watson*, Hasan Ali, Wesley Barresi, Saad Bin Zafar, Philippe Boissevain, Varun Chopra, Ben Cooper, Ben Cutting, Brandon Glover, Alzarri Joseph, Sikandar Raza, Amad Shahzad, Tony Staal, Imran Tahir**, Roelof van der Merwe, Paul Van Meekeren, Tobias Visee, Sikander Zulfiqar
Coach: Mark O’Donnell
BELFAST TITANS: Shahid Afridi*, Mark Adair, JP Duminy**, Shane Getkate, Colin Ingram, Muhammad Ilyas, Andrew McBrine, Mitchell McClenaghan, Muhammad Nawaz, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Aaron Summers, Greg Thompson, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson, Luke Wright, Craig Young
Coach: Ian Pont
DUBLIN CHIEFS: Eoin Morgan*, Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam**, Andrew Balbirnie, Corbin Bosch, Dan Christian, Gareth Delany, Robert Frylinck, Harry Gurney, Tyrone Kane, George Dockrell, Josh Little, Kevin O’Brien, Simi Singh, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker
Coach: Daniel Vettori
EDINBURGH ROCKS: Martin Guptill*, Corey Anderson, Dylan Budge, Kyle Coetzer, Anton Devcich, Oliver Hairs, Matt Henry, Michael Leask, Chris Lynn**, Calum MacLeod, Gavin Main, Tymal Mills, Adrian Neill, Tabraiz Shamsi, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt
Coach: Mark Ramprakash
GLASGOW GIANTS: Brendon McCullum*, Qais Ahmad, Richie Berrington, Ravi Bopara, Scott Cameron, Matthew Cross, Alasdair Evans, Moises Henriques, Michael Jones, Heinrich Klaasen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Usman Shinwari, JJ Smuts, Tom Sole, Dale Steyn**, Hamza Tahir
Coach: Lance Klusener
ROTTERDAM RHINOS: Rashid Khan*, Shaheen Afridi, Anwar Ali, Bas De Leede, Scott Edwards, Vivian Kingma, Fred Klaassen, Stephan Myburgh, Max O’Dowd, Samit Patel, Luke Ronchi**, Pieter Seelaar, Shane Snater, Peter Trego, Hardus Viljoen, Fakhar Zaman, Saqib Zulfiqar
Coach: Herschelle Gibbs
*Denotes Icon Player
**Denotes Marquee Player
