UAE's International League T20 (ILT20) is scheduled to begin in the United Arab UAE's International League T20 (ILT20) is scheduled to begin in the United Arab Emirates early next year and it is the newest addition amongst the domestic T20 leagues played across the globe round the year.
The inception of a newer T20 league is nothing new but it has sprung in a lot of surprises nevertheless.
Firstly, four of the six Franchises that are supposed to take part in this league are being owned or co-owned by 6 IPL Franchises. The owners of the six franchises in the league are namely: Reliance Industries, Kolkata Knight Riders, Capri Global, GMR, Lancer Capital and Adani Sportsline. However the absence of Indian players in the league have raised quite a few eye brows.
Even Cricket Australia (CA) has denied to let it's players participate in the league as ILT20 is supposed to overlap with the later stages of Big Bash League.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board too hasn't let its players participate in the league and even Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has denied NOC (No Objection Certificate) to its players citing Domestic and International commitments.
With as many as 4 Boards opting out, the ILT20 has announced it's list of marquee players ahead of the tournament.
Some of the big names who have signed on are:
Andre Russell, Moeen Ali, Wanindu Hasaranga, Alex Hales, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Jordan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Apart from these the likes of Dawid Malan, Sunil Narine, Evin Lewis, Colin Munro, Fabian Allen, Sam Billings, Tom Curran, Dushmantha Chameera, Akeal Hosein, Tom Banton, Sandeep Lamichhane, Rovman Powell and Bhanuka Rajapaksa as "first set" of players.
The list doesn't end here as 33 more players have been associated with this league.
The final roster of the ILT20 somehow looks like this:
Sri Lanka:
Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera,Bhanuka Rajapaksa,Lahiru Kumara, Seekugge Prassanna, Charith Asalanka, Isuru Udana, Niroshan Dickwella.
West Indies:
Andre Russell, Shimron Hetmyer, Sunil Narine, Evin Lewis, Nicholas Pooran, Fabian Allen, Akeal Hossain, Rovman Powell, Kennar Lewis, Ravi Rampaul, Raymon Reifer, Dominic Drakes, Sherfane Rutherford, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Fletcher.
Afghanistan:
Mujeeb ur Rahman,Hazratullah Zazai, Qais Ahmad, Noor Ahmed,Najibullah Zadran, Zahir Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Naveen-ul-Haq.
England:
Alex Hales, Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Tom Banton, Samit Patel, Will Smeed, Dan Lawrence, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Richard Gleeson, James Vince, Saqib Mahmood, Ben Duckett, Benny Howell and Sam Billings.
New Zealand:
Colin Munro, Trent Boult.
Zimbabwe:
Blessing Muzarabani, Sikandar Raza.
Netherlands:
Brandon Glover, Frederick Klaasen, Bradley Wheal, Bas De Leede.
Namibia:
David Wiese,Ruben Trumpelmann.
South Africa:
Colin Ingram, Imran Tahir.
Scotland:
George Munsey.
Ireland:
Paul Stirling.
USA:
Ali Khan.
Nepal:
Sandeep Lamichhane.
*More to follow.
The six teams that will participate in the league will have a squad of 18 players and it will have two players from Associate countries and four players from UAE.
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