Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo sign up for UAE's ILT20

The upcoming UAE’s International League T20 (ILT20) has secured three West Indies star players in Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. The league also announced the signing of Sri Lankan white-ball skipper Dasun Shanaka, English batter Ollie Pope, and Afghanistan pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi on Thursday.

On June 8, ILT20 announced the first list of signed players, which included the likes of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, amongst others. The league will clashes with the new CSA T20 League and Big Bash League, as all three tournaments have majority of the fixtures scheduled in January-February window. ILT20 also announced that it has finalized signing the players for all six teams via the direct acquire players option.

Each team will have 18 players in their squad pool, including four players from UAE. There is no official update on the involvement of Pakistani players so far, as franchises owned by the Indian Premier League (IPL) teams owners are looking to avoid a potential backlash from India. The Glazer Family, who owns Manchester United Football Club, seemed interested in signing a few Pakistani stars but the PCB has reportedly rejected the NOCs to players.

UAE ILT20 ahead of CSA T20 League in attracting international players

Both UAE ILT20 and CSA T20 are revamped as new premier T20 leagues, replacing former domestic leagues in UAE and South Africa. All six teams in CSA T20 are owned by IPL team owners and have USD 2 million in the purse to spend on players’ acquisition. With both leagues competing with each other to sign overseas talent, salaries for international star players are skyrocketing.

Notably, the CSA T20 recently announced the signing of 11 English stars, including Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone,  but missed many overseas stars in T20 cricket to UAE ILT20. Further, it is also confirmed that Faf du Plessis will be playing for the CSK-owned team in the league, while MI Cape Town have confirmed signing Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Kagiso Rabada, Rashid Khan and Dewald Brevis. CSA T20 also announced the signing of star West Indies players Jason Holder, Kyle Mayers, and a few others, but big-hitters like Russell, Narine, and Pooran will be playing in UAE ILT20 in the first edition.