$50,000 for Afridi in Sri Lankan league

NIDA DAR

KARACHI: Shahid Afridi and Chris Gayle of West Indies will star in Sri Lanka’s inaugural Twenty20 league next month, the Sri Lankan cricket board said on Friday.

The pair is 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.

Gayle will be the highest paid player in the list at $100,000, while Afridi will get $50,000, according to a media release issued by the board.

The other foreign players will receive salaries ranging from $10,000 to $35,000 for their efforts in the 24-match event.

The tournament, which aims to follow 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, Misbahul Haq and Saeed Ajmal of Pakistan and Shakib Al-Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh feature in the list.

The 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.

Sri Lanka Cricket has so far declined to name the owners of the seven franchises, although recent media reports suggested they were all little-known Indian companies after organisers received lukewarm response from local firms.

However, it was unclear how many matches the 13 Pakistanis in the list will play since they are due to play a limited-over series against Australia in the UAE from August 28 to September 10.

The name of the seven teams and players are:

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, Mushfiqur 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