England’s World Cup winning captain Eoin Morgan will return to his native city as part of the Dublin Chiefs team in the Euro T20 Slam.
The inaugural T20 tournament kicks off on August 30th with action starting in Amsterdam, moving to Edinburgh before reaching a climax in Malahide on September 19th.
A player draft was staged in London on Friday, with Morgan taking a keen interest in who was selected for his team. The Chiefs marquee player will be world number one T20 batsman Babar Azam, while their other stars include Australian Dan Christian and star Pakistan fast bowler Mohammed Amir.
The Belfast Titans franchise marquee pick is Shahid Afridi, the 39-year-old Pakistani all-rounder, and will also feature South African JP Duminy and England’s Luke Wright.
18 Irish players were put forward by the national selectors, and were each allocated to the local franchises. Each of the Irish players ended up in their home province, an extraordinary coincidence in a supposedly open draft.
Top-rated players, such as Morgan, will earn €71,000 for the three week tournament, with lesser sums for the other overseas players.
The local players earn €8,900 or €17,800, with €31,000 for the four local players selected by Cricket Ireland as their top stars, Kevin O’Brien, Paul Stirling, Andrew Balbirnie and Gary Wilson.
Euro T20 Slam squads:
Amsterdam Knights: Shane Watson*, Hasan Ali, Wesley Barresi, Saad Bin Zafar, Philippe Boissevain, Varun Chopra, Ben Cooper, Ben Cutting, Brandon Glover, Alzarri Joseph, Sikandar Raza, Amad Shahzad, Tony Staal, Imran Tahir**, Roelof van der Merwe, Paul Van Meekeren, Tobias Visee, Sikander Zulfiqar
Coach: Mark O’Donnell
Belfast Titans: Shahid Afridi*, Mark Adair, JP Duminy**, Shane Getkate, Colin Ingram, Muhammad Ilyas, Andrew McBrine, Mitchell McClenaghan, Muhammad Nawaz, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Aaron Summers, Greg Thompson, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson, Luke Wright, Craig Young
Coach: Ian Pont
Dublin Chiefs: Eoin Morgan*, Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam**, Andrew Balbirnie, Corbin Bosch, Dan Christian, Gareth Delany, Robert Frylinck, Harry Gurney, Tyrone Kane, George Dockrell, Josh Little, Kevin O'Brien, Simi Singh, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker
Coach: Daniel Vettori
Edinburgh Rocks: Martin Guptill*, Corey Anderson, Dylan Budge, Kyle Coetzer, Anton Devcich, Oliver Hairs, Matt Henry, Michael Leask, Chris Lynn**, Calum MacLeod, Gavin Main, Tymal Mills, Adrian Neill, Tabraiz Shamsi, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt
Coach: Mark Ramprakash
Glasgow Giants: Brendon McCullum*, Qais Ahmad, Richie Berrington, Ravi Bopara, Scott Cameron, Matthew Cross, Alasdair Evans, Moises Henriques, Michael Jones, Heinrich Klaasen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Usman Shinwari, JJ Smuts, Tom Sole, Dale Steyn**, Hamza Tahir
Coach: Lance Klusener
Rotterdam Rhinos: Rashid Khan*, Shaheen Afridi, Anwar Ali, Bas De Leede, Scott Edwards, Vivian Kingma, Fred Klaassen, Stephan Myburgh, Max O'Dowd, Samit Patel, Luke Ronchi**, Pieter Seelaar, Shane Snater, Peter Trego, Hardus Viljoen, Fakhar Zaman, Saqib Zulfiqar
Coach: Herschelle Gibbs
*Denotes Icon Player
**Denotes Marquee Player
