Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, And Nicholas Pooran Sign Up For ILT20
Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, and Nicholas Pooran are the latest Caribbean big names to sign up for the UAE’s International League T20 (ILT20), joining Dasun Shanaka of Sri Lanka, Ollie Pope of England, and Fazalhaq Farooqi of Afghanistan.
The league also stated that its six franchises, which are owned by Reliance Industries, Kolkata Knight Riders, Capri Global, GMR, Lancer Capital, and Adani Sportsline, have finalised contracting players via the “directly acquire players” option, though the specifics of who has gone to which team are unknown.
Will Smeed, Rehan Ahmed, Jordan Thompson, Sheldon Cottrell, Andre Fletcher, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Bas de Leede, Chris Benjamin, and Bilal Khan are among the newcomers to the ILT20.
There Is Still Doubt On The Inclusion Of Pakistani Players
On August 8, the ILT20 announced its first list of signed players which included Andre Russell, Moeen Ali, Wanindu Hasaranga, Alex Hales, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Jordan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Dawid Malan, Sunil Narine, Evin Lewis, Colin Munro, Fabian Allen, Sam Billings, Tom Curran, Dushmantha Chameera, Akeal Hosein, Tom Banton, Sandeep Lamichhane, Rovman Powell, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Lahiru Kumara, Seekugge Prassanna, Charith Asalanka, Isuru Udana, Niroshan Dickwella, Kennar Lewis, Ravi Rampaul, Raymon Reifer, Dominic Drakes, Sherfane Rutherford, Hazratullah Zazai, Qais Ahmad, Noor Ahmed, amongst other players.
There have been reports that the number of Pakistani players in the league may be limited since clubs controlled by IPL owners were hesitant to sign them due to fears of a backlash in India.
According to one ILT20 executive, the franchise owned by Lancer Capital – the Glazers family that owns Manchester United – is still hoping to acquire several Pakistan players, though the insider recognised that not receiving NOCs from the PCB could be an issue.
According to a statement issued by the PCB last week, two Pakistani players asked for NOCs to play in the league but were denied since the board expected the players to be involved in Pakistan’s home season.
