UAE T20 League: Capri Global sign R Sridhar as team director

UAE T20 League (International League T20), starting from January 2023, is starting to shape slowly with team owners having started hiring staff. Lancer Capitals have announced the signing of renowned coach Tom Moody as their director of cricket. Lancer Capitals are owned by the famous European football club Manchester United’s owners the Glazer Family. Moody held the same role with Indian Premier League side Sunrisers Hyderabad and Sri Lanka cricket.

The 56-year-old former Australian all-rounder has been part of a number of domestic teams in England, Canada, and the West Indies with roles like coaching, consulting, and director. He will be handling the responsibility of building a team from scratch for the Lancer Capitals, who will be the owner of one of the six teams in the UAE T20 League.

Capri Global, another investor in UAE T20 League, have roped in former Indian fielding coach R Sridhar as a director of cricket. They are owned by Indian-based businessman Rajesh Sharma, who recently bought the Rajasthan team in the upcoming Ultimate Kho Kho (UKK) tournament. Sridhar was also part of Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) staff in 2014 and later joined the Andhra cricket team as their head coach.

The Emirate Cricket Board (ECB) announced the new tournament, UAE T20 League, last month. The league, consisting of six teams, will be conducted from January 6 to February 12, with 34 matches to be played. Interestingly, three teams will be owned by Indian Premier League owners, but team names are yet to be decided. These three teams are Reliance Industries, which owns five-time champions Mumbai Indians, Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders, and GMR-owned Delhi Capitals.

Kolkata Knight Riders have already secured the Abu Dhabi franchise and the Dubai franchise is tied up with Delhi Capitals’ GMR. There are two more Indian companies on the board as well, the Adani Group and Capri Group, which are yet to secure any franchise yet. The Adani Group, one of the most valuable companies in Asia, are working on signing Zimbabwe legend Andy Flower as their director of cricket for their new team. Other teams are also looking to start building up their team slowly as they are allowed to sign five players apart from the draft system.