In the new T20 league of the United Arab Emirates and South Africa, the fight for contracts of foreign cricketers has gathered pace. Two West Indies stars Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo have signed a contract for the Emirates tournament.
The list of contracted cricketers for the second phase of the tournament named ‘International League T20’ was released on Thursday.
Along with two former West Indies cricketers Pollard and Bravo, the country’s current limited overs captain Nicholas Pooran is also in this list. There is Sri Lanka’s Dasun Shanaka, England’s Olly Pope, Afghanistan’s Fazal Haq Farooqui.
Six franchises have finalized the contracted cricketers using the ‘Directly Acquire Players’ facility, the league authorities said. However, who is in which team, is yet to be revealed.
Other cricketers signed in the second phase are Will Schmidt, Rehan Ahmed, Jordan Thompson, Sheldon Cottrell, Andre Fletcher, Tom Koehler-Cadmore, Bas de Lede, Chris Benjamin and Bilal Khan.
The list of contracted cricketers released in the first phase last Monday includes Andre Russell, Moeen Ali, Vanindu Hasaranga, Alex Hales, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Jordan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, David Malan, Sunil Narine, Evin Lewis, Colin Munro, Fabian Allen, Sam Billings, Tom Karan, Dushmanth Chamira, Akil Hossain, Tom Banton, Sandeep Lamishane, Chris Lynn, Rovman Powell, Vanuka Rajapaksa.
Besides, the names of 33 more international cricketers were announced that day.
The 18-man squad for each team will consist of two Associate Nations and four Emiratis. There will be a total of 34 matches in the six-team tournament to be held in January-February. It will be played in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
At the same time, South Africa’s new franchise T20 League is also expected to be launched. The organizers on Wednesday announced the signing of 30 ‘marquee’ foreign players for the tournament. Where there are 11 people from England including Wayne Morgan, Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone. 10 people from Sri Lanka.
All six South African league franchises are owned by IPL owners. And three of the six Emirates League franchises are owned by IPL teams.
