TORONTO: International cricketstars Chris Gayle, Andre Russell,ShahidAfridi, Darren Sammy, LasithMalinga, Steve Smith, Sunil Narine,ChrisLynn, David Miller andDwayne Bravo will play Global T20Canada, a newprofessional league inthe Twenty20 format launched hereon Thursday.
Along with the players, CricketCanada and Mercuri Canada,revealed themark, teams and venuefor the league, the first to be fullystaged inNorth America and set torun from June 28 to July 15.
Global T20 Canada will consist of sixteams, five representingCanadiancities – Edmonton Royals, MontrealTigers, TorontoNationals,Vancouver Knights and WinnipegHawks – with a sixth, CricketWestIndies representative team,consisting entirely of players fromtheCaribbean, as part of an officialpartnership with Cricket WestIndies.
Speaking about this association,Cricket West Indies (CWI)President,Dave Cameron, said, “On behalf ofCWI, I would like to wishGlobal T20Canada much success. The growth ofour region will largelydepend on thesuccess of leagues and tournamentslike this. We supportCricket Canadaand look forward to working evencloser going forward,socongratulations and all the best toCricket Canada and MercuriGroup.”
Teams will be stocked with playersthrough a draft that will takeplaceon May 30. Four roster spots will beset aside for Canadiansreflectingorganizers’ plan to leverage theleague to develop futureCanadiantalent that will lead the men’snational team to successininternational competitions, in boththe Twenty20 and Test formats.
The league will comprise 22 matchesculminating in playoffs andthechampionship match on July 16. Allcontests will take place at MapleLeafCricket Club, a cricket-specificfacility just north of Torontothatwill be expanded to a capacity of7,000 seats.