Afridi, Gayle to star in SLPL

The list of foreigners taking part in the Sri Lankan Premier League has been confirmed, with Australia and Pakistan fielding the most players.
 
Pakistan's Shahid Afridi and Chris Gayle of the West Indies will star in Sri Lanka's inaugural Twenty20 league next month, the cricket board said on Friday.
 
The duo are among 56 foreign players listed to take part in the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) to be held in Colombo and Pallekele from August 10-31, Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement.
 
The tournament, which aims to emulate the success of the highly popular Indian Premier League (IPL), does not have any players from India or England on the list released by the board. But the line-up includes a host of current, former and upcoming players from Pakistan, Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand, the West Indies and South Africa.
 
Australian Ryan Harris, South Africa's Richard Levi and Johan Botha, Misbah-ul-Haq and Saeed Ajmal of Pakistan and Shakib Al-Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh feature in the list.
 
The foreign players will play alongside leading Sri Lankan stars like skipper Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lasith Malinga for seven provincial franchise teams. Unlike the televised players' auctions in the IPL, the cricketers contracted to the SLPL were divided among the seven teams by a draft system that was held behind closed doors in Colombo on Thursday.
 
The cricket board has so far declined to name the owners of the seven franchises or the amount each player will receive for the 24-match tournament. Recent media reports suggested that all seven franchises were bought by little-known Indian companies after organisers received lukewarm response from local firms.
 
It was unclear how many matches the 13 Pakistanis in the list will play since they are due to play a limited-overs series against Australia in the United Arab Emirates from August 28 to September 10.
 
Overseas signings:
 
Uthura: Shakib Al Hasan, Brendan Taylor, Kevon Cooper, Imran Farhat, Fidel Edwards, David Miller, Dillon du Preez, Samuel Badree
 
Nagenahira: Mitchell Marsh, Imran Nazir, Travis Birt, Ahmed Shahzad, Ben Laughlin, Elias Sunny, Musfiqur Rahim, Nasir Hossain
 
Ruhuna: Shahid Afridi, Daniel Harris, Ryan Harris, Aaron Finch, Jerome Taylor, Nathan McCullum, Ryan McLaren, Richard Levi
 
Wayamba: Azhar Mahmood, Umar Akmal, Tamim Iqbal, Colin Ingram, Kemar Roach, James Faulkner, Abdul Razzaq, Brad Hogg
 
Kandurata: Saeed Ajmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Sohail Tanvir, Chris Lynn, Dane Vilas, Albie Morkel, Johan Botha, Adam Voges
 
Basnahira: Brad Hodge, Marlon Samuels, Daniel Smith, Dirk Nannes, Robin Peterson, Tim Southee, Clint McKay, Cameron Borgas
 
Uva: Andrew McDonald, Umar Gul, Shoaib Malik, Callum Ferguson, James Franklin, Abdur Rehman, Hammad Azam, Chris Gayle
 
 

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