Shahid Afridi to miss Global T20 league because of BPL clash

November will be a busy month for Twent20 cricket fans because they have two exciting leagues to look forward to- the fifth edition of Bangladesh Premier League will kick start this November with the South Africa’s T20 Global League scheduled to make its debut at the same time.

However, the poster boy of the shortest format, Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi will not be featuring in the Global T20 League because of his commitment to the Dhaka Dynamites in BPL. He was among the 90 players shortlisted for the South African League. Afridi took to social media to announce that he would miss out on the inaugural edition of the league.

It was merely two days back that his name was announced alongside English opener Alex Hales who would join the list of 16 marquee players that has been declared by the Cricket South Africa. Of them, eight are foreign players – Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga, Brendon McCullum, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Kieron Pollard and Jason Roy – whose names were announced back in April.

His tweet read as – “Unfortunate that I’ll miss Global T20 due to commitments with Dhaka Dynamites in BPL. All the best to everyone in SA. See you soon.” Just yesterday, the players’ draft for the League was held in Cape Town. The talk initially was that after his blitzkrieg-like century just 4 days before the draft was meant to garner him a lot of attention, with speculation that Benoni Zalmi would go after him.

The confirmation:

Unfortunate that I'll miss Global T20 due to commitments with Dhaka dynamites in BPL. All the best to everyone in SA ? See you soon.

— Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) August 26, 2017

What about others caught in the clash?

With both tournaments set to run simultaneously in November-December, the CSA has stated that players who sign contracts will not be allowed to participate in any other tournament, and that the contracts will be binding. The status of various overseas players in the draft including the likes of Fakhar Zaman, Darren Sammy, Carlos Brathwaite, Dawid Malan and Junaid Khan are also tentative.

Five of the 8 named foreign marquee players too are yet to announce which tournament they will actually be playing for, including Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Kevin Pietersen, Kieron Pollard and Jason Roy.