Lynn, Russell, Moeen highlight star-studded signings for UAE's ILT20

The International League T20 (ILT20), a UAE based franchise T20 competition set to host its first edition early next year, released its big-name international signings on Monday, August 8. 

Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, Moeen Ali, Dawid Malan, Wanindu Hasiranga, Sunil Narine, Evin Lewis, Colin Munro, Fabien Allen, Sam Billings, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Dushmantha Chameera, Shimron Hetmyer, Akeal Hosein, Chris Jordan, Tom Banton, Sandeep Lamichhane, Chris Lynn, Rovman Powell, Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Mujeeb Ul Rahman are some of the star internationals to make the cut.

"Some of the biggest names in global T20 cricket from England, the West Indies, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Ireland, as well as from various leading ICC Associate Nations, including USA, Namibia, The Netherlands and Nepal have now signed on," an ILT20 release said.

"Over the past weeks, ILT20's six franchises have started discussions and engaged with players, and players' agents, to exercise their 'Direct Acquisition' rights," Khalid Al Zarooni, chairman of the ILT20, said in a statement.

Interestingly, David Warner, who was reportedly more keen to participate in ILT20 than the Big Bash League at home, wasn’t named in the list.

Other players on board are Lahiru Kumara, Seekugge Prassanna, Charith Asalanka, Colin Ingram, Paul Stirling, Kennar Lewis, Ali Khan, Brandon Glover, Ravi Rampaul, Raymon Reifer, Isuru Udana, Blessing Muzarabani, Niroshan Dickwella, Hazaratullah Zazai, Frederick Klassen, Sikandar Raja, George Munsey, Dan Lawrence, Dominic Drakes, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, David Wiese, Qais Ahmed, Richard Gleeson, James Vince, Noor Ahmed, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Navin Ul Haq, Sherfane Rutherford, Saqib Mahmood, Ben Duckett, Benny Howell and Ruben Trumpelman.

No players from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh feature in the initial list of players.

The competition will be played among six teams with squads of 18 players each, with two players from Associate countries and four players from the UAE in each contingent. The process of picking this set will begin after more international signings are announced.

"We are very excited that a select number of UAE representative-players, from our current pool, will also be considered and signed on to participate in the league. It is also extremely important to note that these (UAE) players will form part of the team's playing XI," Mubashshir Usmani, general secretary of the Emirates Cricket Board, said. "One of the key objectives for ILT20 is to provide opportunities for players from UAE and other Associate nations to perform on the big stage, and, ECB extends its deep appreciation to the six franchises for their support of our vision to grow our game and create stronger, more competitive players."

Each of the six teams will play the other five twice each in the ILT20 round-robin stage, with the playoffs structure to resemble that of the IPL.