60 Associates in GT20 Canada squads, Sandeep top AM pick

Following on from the distinctly Indian feel at the Euro T20 Slam launch ceremony in early May the commonly-owned Global T20 Canada followed suit during their player draft on Thursday, hosted in Mumbai. The tournament will run from Jul 25 – Aug 11 and will be hosted in Brampton, Ontario. With a number of grounds under development in the city, the actual venue has not yet been finalised.

The big news that Yuvraj Singh will participate was made during the announcements of the marquee players across the six franchises. Players in the top two $100,000 brackets include names such as Gayle, McCullum, Williamson, Narine and Bailey.

In place of the West Indies “B” team – and swiftly changed from the mooted “NY Legends” – the sixth team will be “based” in the host city and named the “Wolves”. Brampton’s mayor spoke at length at an earlier local press conference about the city’s commitment to the sport and mentioned numerous infrastructure projects were underway, including a venue capable of hosting TV fixtures under lights.

Each franchise had 17 squad spots to fill; 7 from Full Members and 10 Associates. Half of the AM quota was reserved for Canada players, and of the remaining five, (only) one was to be from another ICC Americas nation.

The draft list had over 1,000 names including nominations from 42 nations. Some like Pakistan (141) and South Africa (67) were to be expected. Russia (4), Spain (3) and Cyprus (1) showed just how far the interest to participate had spread.

Beyond the six from USA who took all the mandated ICC Americas spots, (7 including Hayden Walsh Jnr who was somehow selected as a non-Americas Associate) the UAE was the biggest winner with 7 of its players picked up. Six Scots, four Hongkongers and three players from the Netherlands were also spread across the rosters.

Sompal Kami will become the second Nepalese player to play in a major franchise league when he pulls on a Winnipeg Hawks shirt in a month’s time. He was their second AM selection, behind quick Paul van Meekeren. Unsurprisingly, Sandeep Lamichhane’s name was called out when Toronto had the first pick of the Associates.

Almost two months after his player of the tournament performance in Namibia’s victorious World Cricket League Division Two League in April, JJ Smit was the second AM selection for defending champs Vancouver Knights.

Emerging Cricket Ambassador, and recent MBE recipient Kyle Coetzer is a Montreal Tiger.

GT20 Canada 2019 Squads:

Brampton Wolves: Darren Sammy, Shakib al Hasan, Colin Munro, Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Lendl Simmons, Andre Fletcher, Babar Hayat (Hong Kong), George Munsey (Scotland), Rohan Mustafa (UAE), Zahoor Khan (UAE), Timil Patel (USA), Nitish Kumar (Canada), Abraash Khan (Canada), Armaan Kapoor (Canada), Faisal Jamkhandi (Canada) & Nawab Singh (Canada)

Edmonton Royals: Kane Williamson, Faf du Plessis, Ben Cutting, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sharfane Rutherford, James Neesham, Safyaan Sharif (Scotland), Anshuman Rath (Hong Kong), Richard Barrington (Scotland), Ehsan Nawaz (Hong Kong), Kyle Phillip (USA), Davy Jacobs (Canada), Navneet Dhaliwal (Canada), Satsimranjit Dhindsa (Canada), Akash Gill (Canada) & Shahid Ahmadzai (Canada)

Montreal Tigers: George Bailey, Sunil Narine, Thisera Perera, Fawad Ahmed, Isuru Udana, Keemo Paul, Niroshan Dickwella, Mohammad Naveed (UAE), Kyle Coetzer (Scotland), Matthew Cross (Scotland), Nizakat Khan (Hong Kong), Steven Taylor (USA), Dillon Heyliger (Canada), Nikhil Dutta (Canada), Bupinder Singh (Canada), Arslan Khan (Canada) & Yax Patel (Canada)

Toronto Nationals: Brendon McCullum, Yuvraj Singh, Keiron Pollard, Trent Boult, Heinrich Klassen, Manpreet Singh Gony, Chris Green, Sandeep Lamichhane (Nepal), Calum MacLeod (Scotland), Chirag Suri (UAE), Ghulam Shabbir (UAE), Jasdeep Singh (USA), Jeremy Gordon (Canada), Revinder Pal Singh (Canada), Salman Nazar (Canada), Mark Montfort (Canada) & Rodrigo Thomas (Canada)

Vancouver Knights: Chris Gayle, Shoaib Malik, Andre Russell, Tim Southee, Rassie van der Dussen, Ali Khan (USA), Chadwick Walton, Daniel Sams, Hayden Walsh Jr (USA), JJ Smit (Namibia), Tobias Visee (Netherlands), Michael Rippon (Netherlands), Saad bin Zafar (Canada), Rizwan Cheema (Canada), Rayyan Pathan (Canada), Harsh Thaker (Canada) & Matthew Nandu (Canada)

Winnipeg Hawks: Chris Lynn, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, JP Duminy, Umar Akmal, Najibullah Zadran, Rayad Emrit, Paul van Meekeren (Netherlands), Sompal Kami (Nepal), Rameez Shahzad (UAE), Shaiman Anwar (UAE), Sunny Sohal (USA), Hamza Tariq (Canada), Sana Kaleem (Canada), Umair Ghani (Canada), Romesh Eranga (Canada) & Varun Sehdev (Canada).