T20 Champions League Cricket Players from Pakistan

As much as 20 players from Pakistan will be part of the fourth edition of Champions League Twenty20 scheduled to be played in South Africa next month, a contest between 14 Twenty20 franchises of seven countries.

The most notable inclusion of a player from Pakistan came in form of Shahid Afridi who will participate in the event for his English franchise Hampshire. Afridi was part of Hampshire’s squad for Friends Life T20 but could not play due to visa issues. Hampshire are the current Champions of Friends Life T20, England’s domestic T20 annual event.

International players such as Shoaib Malik, Imran Nazir, Rana Naveed, Raza Hassan, Abdur Rehman, Qaiser Abbas, Shakeel Ansar, Mohammad Ayub Dogar will represent Sialkot Stallions, who will be first team from Pakistan to become of CLT20. Earlier, in 2008, Stallions were also set to play in the first edition of CLT20 which was postponed due to Mumbai terror attacks. Stallions captain Shoaib Malik was also eligible to represent Uva Next, his SLPL franchise, but he opted for his home team.

Since Sialkot Stallions and Hampshire are lined up in the same group of Qualifying round, Shahid Afridi will be up against his countrymen playing for Stallions.

Other Pakistan players will be featuring in Champions League T20 are Umar Gul and Fawad Alam, from their Sri Lanka Premier League’s franchise Uva Next. Azhar Mahmood will be with Auckland Aces of New Zealand whereas Sohail Tanvir with his South African franchise Highvlend Lions. Hammad Azam, who played in the SLPL, was not retained in the squad by Uva Next.

In the past events only two players from Pakistan have played in CLT20, Yasir Arafat for Sussex in 2009 and Abdul Razzaq for Leicestershire in 2011.

Champions League Twenty20 2012 will be played in South Africa between October 9 and 28. Durban, Johannesburg, Centurion and Cape Town are the venues for this global T20 tournament.

• Sialkot Stallions: Shoaib Malik (captain), Imran Nazir, Raza Hassan, Abdur Rehman, Qaiser Abbas, Sarfraz Ahmed, Shakeel Ansar, Mohammad Ayub, Umaid Asif, Bilawal Bhatti, Ali Khan, Faisal Naveed, Naved-ul-Hasan, Haris Sohail, Shahid Yusuf.
• Hampshire: Shahid Afridi
• Auckland Aces: Azhar Mahmood
• Uva Next: Umar Gul and Fawad Alam
• Highvlend Lions: Sohail Tanvir

There has been a huge surprise in form of absence of Chris Gayle, who despite being the biggest Twenty20 mercenary, hasn’t made into this global Twenty20 event. Like Shahid Afridi who was registered with Hampshire but could not play for them, Gayle was part of Uva Next’s initial squad but an injury ousted him from the SLPL. However, for some unknown reasons, Gayle will not be with Uva Next in CLT20.

In other news, the Trinidad & Tobago trio of Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo have opted to play for their respective IPL teams rather than their home team. In return, as compensation, the T&T franchise will get 150,000 US Dollars per player from the IPL franchise that will have its player.