Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and Pakistan captain Babar Azam, vice-captain Mohammad Rizwan and pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi are among the marquee cricket names slated to play in this summer’s GT20 Canada competition.
The fourth edition of the T20 tournament runs July 25 to Aug. 11 in Brampton, Ont.
The six-team competition features the defending champion Montreal Tigers, Toronto Nationals, Brampton Wolves, Vancouver Knights, Surrey Jaguars and Bangla Tigers Mississauga.
This summer’s edition marks a homecoming for the 23rd-ranked Canada team that made its debut at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, currently in the Super-8 stage in the West Indies. Led by captain Saad Bin Zafar, the Canadians recorded their first win at the T20 World Cup when they beat No. 11 Ireland by 12 runs on June 7.
Zafar is joined on the Toronto Nationals roster by Canadian teammates Nicholas Kirton and Nikhil Dutta.
Other Canadian World Cup team members taking part are Pargat Singh, Dilon Heyliger and Rayyan Pathan (Bangla Tigers Mississauga), Aaron Johnson and Ravinderpal Singh (Brampton Wolves), Kaleem Sana and Dilpreet Singh Bajwa (Montreal Tigers), Shreyas Movva, Navneet Dhaliwal and Junaid Siddiqu (Surrey Jaguars), and Jeremy Gordon and Rishiv Joshi (Vancouver Knights).
Teams were chosen via draft with sides allowed to retain a number of players from last year, if so desired.
Players returning from last year include Logan van Beek of the Netherlands (Surrey Jaguars), Australia’s Chris Lynn and Sherfane Rutherford of the West Indies (Montreal Tigers), and New Zealand’s Colin Munro (Toronto Nationals).
The Vancouver Knights won the inaugural tournament in 2018 with the Winnipeg Hawks emerging victorious in 2019. There was no competition in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic.
The player pool draws on talent from Canada, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, Italy, Malaysia, Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa United Arab Emirates, the U.S., and the West Indies.
India does not allow its players to take part in foreign leagues, unless they are retired from international cricket and not playing in the domestic IPL.
The tournament is broadcast around the world with markets outside of Canada taking in last year’s competition including Australia, Bangladesh, India Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, the U.S., United Kingdon as well as the Middle East.
