Abu Dhabi: Delhi Bulls’ coach Stephen Fleming will implement the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Chennai Super Kings’ winning formula in the Abu Dhabi T10 to be held from November 14 to 24 at the Zayed Cricket Stadium. Fleming transformed Chennai into one of the most successful teams in the IPL by following his coaching philosophy of retaining experienced campaigners.
In the Abu Dhabi T10 draft held at Dusit Thani hotel on Wednesday night, Fleming along with Bulls’ team mentor Anis Sajan picked the best experienced players.
Speaking after the draft, Fleming, who was also known New Zealand’s shrewdest captain, said: “The first part of our philosophy is to build a core base for the squad. Category A players gave us that opportunity and so we went with Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir and Adil Rashid. We also retained the services of India’s legendary pacer Zaheer Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Kusal Perara. These players together with Eoin Morgan fit very well into this philosophy. To be a successful franchise and be consistent one must continue working with players from last season who we invested a lot of time and energy. This is why we opted to pick players such as Sherfane Rutherford, Amir Yamin, Ali Khan and Muhammad Usman, all of whom had a very good season last year.”
Sajan backed Fleming saying: “I full endorse the philosophies that Fleming brings to this franchise. This year, I put my weight behind speedster Mohammad Hasnain, who clocks 150kph and picked a hat trick in the recent T20 series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The other two names we are excited at getting are Irish batter Paul Striling, Dutch Wicket Keeper Tobias Visee and UAE player, Waheed Ahmed.”
All the champions of limited-overs cricket from around the world will be in action in the Abu Dhabi T10. Teams are excited over having picked the best players in the game and team owners are hoping that their stars will deliver The best coaches in limited-overs cricket are at the helm of each of the eight teams and they sat along with the owners to scoop on players from a list of 110 cricketers which were allotted to them.
Ansh Tandon, one of UAE’s most promising cricketers, who hit an unbeaten century against Sri Lanka in the Asian Cricket Council Under-19 Asia Cup last month, are among the UAE players picked into T10 and he will play under the captaincy of West Indies T20 World Cup winning cup winning captain Darren Sammy and all-rounder Andre Russell for defending champions Northern Warriors. The other UAE players are Rameez Shahzad (Team Abu Dhabi), Chirag Suri (Bangla Tigers), Waheed Ahmad (Delhi Bulls), Zahoor Khan (Deccan Gladiators) UAE captain Ahmad Raza (Karnataka Tuskers).
Incidentally, the new Team Abu Dhabi will have UAE coach Dougie Brown as assistant coach to head coach Trevor Bayliss.
Shaji Ul Mulk, the chairman of the Abu Dhabi T10 league revealed that efforts to rope in former Indian star Yuvraj Singh is on. Commenting on the draft, Matthew Boucher, the CEO of Abu Dhabi Cricket said: “The lists of names have now grown into some formidable team sheets, and with everything now assembled, we can’t wait to experience the drama and passion of T10 cricket with local fans and those around the world.”
The teams
Team Abu Dhabi
Owners: Abu Dhabi Sports Council
Coach: Trevor Byliss and Dougie Brown
Icon Player: Moeen Ali
Players: Mohammad Amir, Harry Gurney, Luke Wright, Corey Anderson, Lewis Gregory, Ben Laughlin, Richard Gleeson, Rohan Mustafa, Rameez Shahzad, Hayden Walsh, Niroshan Dickwella, Alex Davies
Bangla Tigers
Owners: Yasin Chowdhury and Shirajuddin Alam
Coach: Aftab Ahmed
Icon Player: Thissera Perera
Players: Colin Ingram, Rilee Rossouw, Robbie Frylinck, Andre Fletcher, Qais Ahmad, James Faulkner, Farhad Reza, Anamul Haque Bijoy, Chiragh Suri, Junaid Siddiqui, Yasir Ali, Mehedi Hasan, Arafat Sunny
Maratha Arabians
Owners: Parvez Khan and Ali Tumbi
Coach: Andy Flower
Icon Player: Chris Lynn
Players: Lasith Malinga, Mohammad Irfan, Dasun Shanaka, Dwayne Bravo, Hazratullah Zazai, Chadwick Walton, Najibullah Zadran, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shiraz Ahmed, Mohammad Qasim, James Fuller, Adam Lyth, Nasir Aziz
Delhi Bulls
Owners: Rizwan Sajan, Anis Sajan and Nilesh Bhatnagar
Coach: Stephen Fleming
Icon Player: Eoin Morgan
Players: Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanveer, Adil Rashid, Kusal Perera, Mohammad Nabi, Muhammad Hasnain, Aamir Yamin, Muhammad Usman, Waheed Ahmed, Tobias Visee, Ali Khan, Sherfane Rutherford, Paul Stirling
Deccan Gladiators
Owners: Gaurav Grover
Coach: Mushtaq Ahmed
Icon Player: Shane Watson
Players: Ben Cutting, Kieron Pollard, Tymal Mills, Anton Devcich, Zahir Khan, Mohammad Shahzad, Anwar Ali, Zahoor Khan, Asif Khan, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Bhanuka Rajapakse, Mason Crane, Fawad Ahmed
Karnataka Tuskers
Team Owners: Vijay Vyas
Coach: Tom Moody
Icon Player: Hashim Amla
Players: Sandeep Lamichhane, Pat Brown, Evin Lewis, Kesrick Williams, Johnson Charles, Ross Whiteley, Shapoor Zadran, Ahmed Raza, Asif Mumtaz, Nathan Raveendran, Shafiqullah Safiq, Marlon Samuels, Fabian Allen
Northern Warriors
Owners: Mohammad Morani and Ilyas Shahbazi
Coach: Robin Singh
Icon Player: Darren Sammy
Players: Andre Russell, Sam Billings, Lendl Simmons, Wahab Riaz, Chris Green, Rayad Emrit, Nicolas Pooran, Sikandar Raza, Ansh Tandon, Amir Hayat, Mark Deyal, Karim Jannat, George Munsey
Qalandars
Owners: Fawad Rana
Coach: Aaqib Javed
Icon Player: Shahid Afridi
Players: Luke Ronchi, Chris Gordan, Tom Banton, Mohammad Hafeez, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Philip Salt, Imran Nazir, Maaz Khan, Majid, Harris Rauf, Ahsan Mirza, Dilbar Hussain
