After the advent of Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008, similar franchise-based cricket leagues have mushroomed all over the world. The likes of Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia have become a huge success, while others such as Caribbean Premier League and Pakistan Super League are also flourishing.
Now, South Africa is set to start its own league, which will be known as T20 Global League. It is expected to provide some stiff competition to BBL and IPL — the two most successful leagues.
The league in South Africa is expected to start in November 2017, and the eight participating teams will pick players during the draft this weekend.
In all, 90 foreign cricketers from all around the world, including Pakistan, England, and Australia among the major cricketing nations, are up for grabs in the auction. Indian players — who are only allowed to participate in their own league — will be missing the mega carnival in South Africa.
Pakistan seems to have the most number of players in the draft, exceeding 20, while England, West Indies and Sri Lanka have a decent number. Australia, though, has only three players in the draft. New Zealand has just two. There are players associated with teams such as Zimbabwe, Netherlands and Scotland as well.
Despite top stars missing from some teams, the eight franchises are going to go all out and buy established stars such as Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Alex Hales, Jerome Taylor and Sam Billings.
With eight franchises in the competition, all of them can sign a maximum of five foreign players in the draft.
Stellenbosch Monarchs, Durban Qalandars, Bloem City Blazer, Cape Town Knight Riders, Pretoria Mavericks, Nelson Mandela Bay Stars, Joburg Giants and Benoni Zalmi are the eight teams of T20 Global League.
Here is a look at all the foreign players available for the draft
Pakistan: Ahmed Shehzad, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Butt, Sami Aslam, Iftikhar Ahmed, Kamran Akmal, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Rizwan, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Nawaz, Shahid Afridi, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Shah
England: Michael Carberry, Alex Hales, Adam Lyth, Gary Balance, Ian Bell, Sam Billings, Ben Duckett, Liam Livingstone, James Vince, Tim Bresnan, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Mark Wood, Monty Panesar, Adil Rashid
West Indies: Jonathan Carter, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Danza Hyatt, Jason Mohammed, Devon Thomas, Tino Best, Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor, Sulieman Benn, Ashley Nurse, Veerasammy Permaul, Shane Shillingford
Sri Lanka: Dilshan Munaweera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Perera, Lahiru Thirimanne, Shehan Jayasuriya, Jeewan Mendis, Ramith Rambukwella, Dushmantha Chameera, Dammika Prasad, Suraj Randiv, Sachithra Senanayake
South Africa (Kolpak players): Marchant de Lange, Hardus Viljoen, Colin Ackermann, Simon Harmer, David Wiese, Colin Ingram, Stiaan van Zyl, Dane Vilas, Cameron Delport, Richard Levi
Australia: Ben Hilfenhaus, Nathan Reardon, Johan Botha
New Zealand: Mitchell McClenaghan, Jeetan Patel
Zimbabwe: Hamilton Masakadza, Vusi Sibanda, Sean Ervine, Elton Chigumbura
Ireland: William Porterfield, Kevin O'Brien, Boyd Rankin, George Dockrell
Netherlands: Stephan Myburgh, Ryan ten Doeschate, Roelof van der Merwe
Afghanistan: Dawlat Zadran
Hong Kong: Anshuman Rath
Scotland: Kyle Coetzer
Marquee players confirmed in April
International: Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga, Brendon McCullum, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Kieron Pollard, Jason Roy.
South Africa: Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir
