Global T20 Canada 2018: The Beginning Of A New Era

There seem to be franchise T20 tournaments all over the world. Tournaments such as the Indian Premier League and the Big Bash League have captured the attention of the cricketing world for several years now. It is hardly surprising then to see more cricketing nations trying to get involved, especially when considering the financial incentive it offers. Yesterday a player draft took place to formulate the squads for the latest franchise tournament – the Global T20 Canada.

Canada are currently an Associate Member of the ICC. They finished 3rd in the ICC World Cricket League Division Two, after beating Namibia by 49 runs in the fifty over clash. Along the way to their success, Canada recorded impressive victories over Kenya and Oman whilst only narrowly losing to the fast-improving Nepal team.

Cricket in Canada is now set to receive a huge boost in status, as thousands of international fans are expected to follow this new franchise T20 tournament which boasts some of the biggest names in world cricket.

The format of the tournament is simple. All matches are 20 overs a side, with there being six teams playing in a round robin system. After the round robin is completed, there will be playoffs and a subsequent final. One of the teams is a Caribbean “All-Stars” team, comprised entirely of players from the West Indies.

As mentioned earlier, the draft for the tournament has already taken place. An incredible 1,600 players put their names down to be included in the draft. Out of this, 600 were from Canada. This already shows promising signs of improving the reputation of the game in Canada. As is customary for T20 tournaments, they announced marquee players – who did not disappoint in status.

The marquee players are as follows: Shahid Afridi (PAK), Dwayne Bravo (WI), Chris Gayle (WI), Chris Lynn (AUS), Lasith Malinga (SL), David Miller (SA), Sunil Narine (WI), Andre Russell (WI), Darren Sammy (WI) and Steve Smith (AUS).

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As you can see from the list above, Australian batsman Steve Smith is set to make his comeback from international cricket. David Warner is also playing in this tournament. This will be the first time that these two Australian cricketers return to competitive cricket after the highly controversial “sandpaper-gate” incidents that led to them being suspended from playing for the Australian national team. Therefore, the eyes of the cricketing world will be drawn to Canada as these two dynamic Australian cricketers take to the pitch again.

It is not just the announcement of big-name players that turned heads, but even the appointment of some experienced coaches. Pakistan legend Waqar Younis is going to coach the Winnipeg Hawks, while Tom Moody is the head coach of the Montreal Tigers.

Admittedly, the timing of this tournament is far from ideal. During the course of the tournament India will be beginning their tour of England, with the T20Is and ODIs preceding the Test series. Also, the Vitality Blast T20 League will be starting in England so a lot of fans would prioritise watching that. The time difference will be far from ideal as well, since if the matches are to be played at night, say a 18:00 start time, that would correspond to a 23:00 start time in the U.K and far later for India.

Nevertheless, this tournament brings hope to the cricketing world. It shows the positive sign that countries want to host T20 tournaments and improve the standard of their nations cricketers. The young Canadian players will learn so much playing alongside some of the world’s best and hopefully the Canadian population will watch and develop a love of the great game. In a cricketing world that is shrinking and rapidly losing favour, this T20 tournament can hopefully be the beginning of a new era where the game grows.

Full Squads:

CWI Representative Team: TBC

Edmonton Royals: Shahid Afridi, Chris Lynn, Luke Ronchi, Mohammed Irfan, Sohail Tanvir, Christiaan Jonker, Wayne Parnell, Asif Ali, Hasan Khan, Agha Salman, Shaiman Anwar, Ammar Khalid, Satsimranjit Dhindsa, Ahmed Raza, Simon Pervez, Abraash Khan

Montreal Tigers: Lasith Malinga, Sunil Narine, Thisara Perera, Mohammad Hafeez, Denesh Ramdin, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sikandar Raza, Dasun Shanaka, Isuru Udana, George Worker, Najibullah Zadran, Cecil Pervez, Mohammed Ibrahim Khaleel, Dilon Heylinger, Nicholas Kirton, Rayyankhan Pathan

Toronto Nationals: Darren Sammy, Steve Smith, Kieron Pollard, Kamran Akmal, Hussain Talat, Ruman Rias, Nikhil Dutta, Johnson Charles, Kesrick Williams, Naveed Ahmed, Nasakat Khan, Farhan Malik, Nitesh Kumar, Usama Mir, Rohan Mustafa, Muhammad Umair Ghani

Vancouver Knights: Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Evin Lewis, Tim Southee, Chadwick Walton, Fawad Ahmed, Babar Hayat, Sheldon Cottrell, Saad Bin Zafar, Ruvindu Gunasekara, Srimantha Wijeratne, Kamau Leverock, Steven Jacobs, Salman Nazar, Rassie Van Der Dussen, Jeremy Gordon

Winnipeg Hawks: Dwayne Bravo, David Miller, David Warner, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Rayad Emrit, Ben McDermott, Ali Khan, Hamza Tariq, Junaid Siddique, Tion Webster, Rizwan Cheema, Hiral Patel, Mark Deyal, Kyle Phillip

Main Photo:

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