Top cricket stars join HBL Pakistan Super League

LAHORE (NNI): HBL Pakistan Super League is all set to become bigger and better with more international stars signing up to take part in the Player Draft for season three.

This year’s HBL PSL Player Draft will see teams vying for top tier international talent including JP Duminy, Mitchell Johnson, Mustafizur Rahman, Wayne Parnell, Colin Munro, Imran Tahir, Luke Ronchi, Angelo Mathews, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adil Rashid, John Hastings and Chris Lynn.

South African middle-order star JP Duminy, who recently called an end to this Test career in a bid to focus on limited overs cricket, will add experience and firepower to the player roster. He is joined by his national teammates Wayne Parnell and Pakistan-born South African spin wizard Imran Tahir.

Australian stars Mitchell Johnson and Chris Lynn have also signed up for this year’s HBL PSL Player Draft. Johnson has been in phenomenal bowling form this year including match-winning performances for the Perth Scorchers. Lynn has made a mark across the international T20 circuit and will be keen to bring his aggressive batting to the HBL Pakistan Super League.

Former Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews will also be looking to make his inaugural HBL Pakistan Super League appearance this season. Mathews will be joined by current West Indian skipper Jason Holder, Aussie all-rounder John Hastings, and the Kiwi duo of Luke Ronchi and Mitchell McClenaghan.

“We are seeing top quality cricketers signing up with the HBL Pakistan Super League every year now,” said Najam Sethi, Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board. “This is an expansion year and, therefore, our efforts are geared towards making this bigger and better than the first two seasons. We have top tier international talent joining a pool of released players and this sets us up very nicely for the main draft.”

Teams will now pick one player each in the Platinum, Diamond and Gold categories, two in Silver, two in Emerging and up to four players in the supplementary round to make up their squads. The draft pool for this year will consist of new signings as well as players who were released at the end of the retention window and went unpicked in the expansion draft.

Some of this season’s new signings are listed below: JP Duminy (South Africa), Chris Lynn (Australia), Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka), Imran Tahir (South Africa), Mitchell McClenaghan (New Zealand), Evin Lewis (West Indies), Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Colin Munro (New Zealand), Jason Holder (West Indies), Adil Rashid (England), John Hastings (Australia), Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh), Lendl Simmons (West Indies), Luke Ronchi (New Zealand), , Wayne Parnell (South Africa), James Vince (England), Darren Bravo (West Indies), Albie Morkel (South Africa), Tim Bresnan (England).