David Warner will join Steve Smith in making their cricket comeback at the Global T20 Canada League after being picked by Winnipeg Hawks in the player draft on Sunday (June 3).
Guyana off-spinner Steven Jacobs was snapped up by Vancouver Knights, while Dilon Heyliger and Jeremy Gordon, Guyanese who are plying their trade overseas, were also bought at the draft. (See full teams below)
Earlier, Smith was named one of the 10 proposed marquee players. The other marquee players are Shahid Afridi, David Miller, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Darren Sammy and Lasith Malinga. The league will comprise six teams that will play 22 games beginning June 28, while the final will be played on July 15.
Both Smith and Warner were suspended for 12 months by Cricket Australia following their involvement in the infamous ball tampering scandal that took place earlier this year in the Newlands Test against South Africa. However, the board had cleared the banned troika, which includes Cameron Bancroft (suspended for nine months) to play grade cricket.
Warner will also be seen in the Darwin Strike League in July, alongside Bancroft. While Bancroft will be available for the entire duration of the tournament, Warner will feature in two 50-over matches on July 21 and 22. At the Darwin Strike League, the former Australia vice-captain will play for Randwick Petersham, his club in Sydney.
Final team listings:
In the players’ draft conducted on June 3, a coach was to pick two marquee players from the list already announced and then 14 others players from a pool. Toronto Nationals got the first pick. Four spots in each side were set aside for Canadians.
Toronto Nationals: Darren Sammy [marquee player], Steven Smith [marquee player], Kieron Pollard, Kamran Akmal, Hussain Talat, Ruman Rias, Nikhil Dutta, Johnson Charles, Kesrick Williams, Naveed Ahmed, Nazakat Khan, Farhan Malik, Nitesh Kumar, Usama Mir, Rohan Mustafa, Muhammad Umair Ghani
Vancouver Knights: Chris Gayle [marquee player], Andre Russell [marquee player], Evin Lewis, Tim Southee, Chadwick Walton, Fawad Ahmed, Babar Hayat, Sheldon Cottrell, Saad Bin Zafar, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Srimantha Wijeratne, Kamau Leverock, Steven Jacobs, Hiral Patel, Rassie Van Der Dussen, Jeremy Gordon
Winnipeg Hawks: Dwayne Bravo [marquee player], David Miller [marquee player], 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
Montreal Tigers: Lasith Malinga [marquee player], Sunil Narine [marquee player], Thisara Perera, Mohammad Hafeez, Denesh Ramdin, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sikandar Raza, Dasun Shanaka, Isuru Udana, George Worker, Najibullah Zadran, Cecil Pervez, Mohammad Ibrahim Khaleel, Dilon Heyliger, Nicholas Kirton, Rayyankhan Pathan
Edmonton Royals: Shahid Afridi [marquee player], Chris Lynn [marquee player], Luke Ronchi, Mohammed Irfan, Sohail Tanvir, Christiaan Jonker, Wayne Parnell, Asif Ali, Hasan Khan, Agha Salman, Shaiman Anwar, Anmar Khalid, Satsimranjit Dhindsa, Ahmed Raza, Simon Pervez, Abraash Khan
A sixth team, which is a representative side from Cricket West Indies, will also take part in the tournament. (Cricbuzz)
