Global T20 Canada: Only one Pakistan player part of new professional league
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TORONTO: International cricketstars Chris Gayle, Andre Russell,Shahid Afridi, Darren Sammy, LasithMalinga, Steve Smith, Sunil Narine,Chris Lynn, David Miller andDwayne Bravo will play Global T20Canada, a new professional league inthe Twenty20 format launched hereon Thursday.
Along with the players, CricketCanada and Mercuri Canada,revealed the mark, teams and venuefor the league, the first to be fullystaged in North America and set torun from June 28 to July 15.
Global T20 Canada will consist of sixteams, five representing Canadiancities – Edmonton Royals, MontrealTigers, Toronto Nationals,Vancouver Knights and WinnipegHawks – with a sixth, Cricket WestIndies representative team,consisting entirely of players fromthe Caribbean, 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 wish Global T20Canada much success. The growth ofour region will largely depend on thesuccess of leagues and tournamentslike this. We support Cricket Canadaand look forward to working evencloser going forward, socongratulations and all the best toCricket Canada and Mercuri Group.”
Teams will be stocked with playersthrough a draft that will take placeon May 30. Four roster spots will beset aside for Canadians reflectingorganizers’ plan to leverage theleague to develop future Canadiantalent that will lead the men’snational team to success ininternational competitions, in boththe Twenty20 and Test formats.
The league will comprise 22 matchesculminating in playoffs and thechampionship match on July 16. Allcontests will take place at Maple LeafCricket Club, a cricket-specificfacility just north of Toronto thatwill be expanded to a capacity of7,000 seats.
