DUBAI: The T10 League managed to attract star power from across the globe in the player draft conducted in the city on Monday. Eight teams namely Kerala Kings, Maratha Arabians, Punjabi Legends, Bengal Tigers, Pakhtoons, Karachians, Rajputs and Northern Warriors will be divided into two groups this time. Players from countries such as Pakistan, England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa and Ireland were picked up. In a heartening development for Afghanistan, 11 of its players were drafted.
Kerala, the defending champions managed to retain England’s ODI and T20I captain Eoin Morgan as their icon player and scooped up the West Indies duo of Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard. Shahid Afridi, Sunil Narine, Brendon McCullum, Darren Sammy, Shane Watson, Rashid Khan and Shoaib Malik were the other seven icon players named. The same list of players attracted the highest bids for the Afghanistan Premier League as well, which will be held in the UAE as well prior to the T10 League.
According to some reports, former India opener Virender Sehwag is likely to be the batting coach of the Maratha Arabians this season, the team he had played for last year. However, this hasn’t been confirmed as yet. Rashid Khan, Dwayne Bravo and Lasith Malinga are amongst the top players in the team with Wasim Akram as its head coach.
The league has courted controversy in recent times with Salman Iqbal, the chairman of Pakistan’s leading media company, ARY disassociating himself from the tournament, despite being its co-founder and promoter. Iqbal is the man responsible to have persuaded the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to allow the country’s players to participate in the tournament earlier and stand to gain $1 million for the same, according to an ESPNcricinfo report.
It is likely that due to this development, the PCB under its new chairman Ehsan Mani, has not provided No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to its centrally-contracted and active players unless it is assured of the tournament’s credibility. Yet franchises have picked 17 players from the country on aggregate, with only two of them being retired (Shahid Afridi and Imran Nazir) and subsequently, guaranteed to play in the tournament.
As it stands, the competition is set to take place from 23 November to 2 December in the city of Sharjah. Here are the squads of the eight franchises –
Kerala Kings: Eoin Morgan (Captain, Eng), Sohail Tanvir (Pakistan), Kieron Pollard (WI), Paul Stirling (Ire), Dasun Shanaka (SL), Chris Gayle (WI), Junaid Khan (Pak), Sandeep Lamichhane (Nep), Tom Curran (Eng), Fabian Allen (WI), Niroshan Dickwella (SL), Imran Nazir (Pak), Benny Howell (Eng).
Maratha Arabians: Rashid Khan (Afg), Kamran Akmal (Pak), Alex Hales (Eng), Dwayne Bravo (WI), James Faulkner (Aus), Lasith Malinga (SL), Liam Livingstone (Eng), James Vince (Eng), Brendan Taylor (Zim), Adam Lyth (Eng), Roelof van der Merwe (Ned), Najibullah Zadran (Afg), Richard Gleeson (Eng).
Bengal Tigers: Sunil Narine (WI), Jason Roy (Eng), Asif Ali (Pak), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (Afg), Sam Billings (Eng), Morne Morkel (SA), Aamer Yamin (Pak), Mohammad Nabi (Afg), Kusal Perera (SL), Sherfane Rutherford (WI), Kevon Cooper (WI), Rayad Emrit (WI), Ali Khan (USA).
Pakhtoons: Shahid Afridi (Pak), Mohammad Irfan (Pak), Liam Dawson (Eng), Colin Ingram (SA), David Willey (Eng), Colin Munro (NZ), Andre Fletcher (WI), Sohail Khan (Pak), Sharafuddin Ashraf (Afg), Chadwick Walton (WI), Shapoor Zadran (Afg), Gulbadin Naib (Afg), Cameron Delport (SA).
Karachians: Shane Watson (Aus), Anton Devcich (NZ), Ben Laughlin (Aus), Jofra Archer (Eng), Colin de Grandhomme (NZ), Ben Cutting (Aus), Mohammad Nawaz (Pak), Dawid Malan (Eng), Fawad Ahmed (Aus), Isuru Udana (SL), Joe Clarke (Eng), Samiullah Shenwari (Afg), Mohammad Irfan (Pak).
Punjabi Legends: Shoaib Malik (Pak), Chris Jordan (Eng), Luke Ronchi (NZ), Liam Plunkett (Eng), Evin Lewis (WI), Mohammad Sami (Pak), Zahir Khan (Afg), Umar Akmal (Pak), Mitchell McClenaghan (NZ), Tom Moores (Eng), Anwar Ali (Pak), Jade Dernbach (Eng), Hassan Khan (Pak).
Rajputs: Brendon McCullum (NZ), Chris Lynn (Aus), Rilee Rossouw (SA), Mohammad Shahzad (Afg), Mohammad Hafeez (Pak), Tymal Mills (Eng), Carlos Brathwaite (WI), Rahat Ali (Pak), Samit Patel (Eng), Qais Ahmad (Afg), Ben Dunk (Aus), Shan Masood (Pak), Peter Trego (Eng).
Northern Warriors: Darren Sammy (WI), Wahab Riaz (Pak), Nicolas Pooran (WI), Andre Russell (WI), Dwayne Smith (WI), Ravi Bopara (Eng), Rovman Powell (WI), Harry Gurney (Eng), Chris Green (Aus), Obed McCoy, Lendl Simmons (WI), Khary Pierre (WI), Kennar Lewis (WI).
