Chittagong Vikings rope in Chris Gayle for BPL 2016-17
Sep 28, 2016 at 11:38 AM
West Indies batting star Chris Gayle on Tuesday (September 27) has penned a deal to play five matches in the upcoming season of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) for Chittagong Vikings. Gayle, who played for Barisal Bulls in the 2015-16 edition, will be available for the latter half of the tournament. He scored 139 matches for the franchise in that season.
Chittagong who finished at the bottom of the table in 2015-16 will be looking to perform better this season after bringing in some quality players. Apart from Gayle, they have signed Gayle’s compatriot Dwayne Smith, Shoaib Malik, Chaturanga de Silva, and Mohammad Nabi.
Playing for Rangpur Riders last season Nabi took seven wickets in as many matches. Chittagong’s bowling will be further boosted as de Silva was the leading wicket-taker in this year’s Dhaka Premier League.
Apart from these players, several other big names have also signed to play in this edition.
Sri Lankan great Mahela Jayawardene has signed up to play for Dhaka Dynamites where he will join his former teammate Kumar Sangakkara. The Dhaka franchise has also secured the services of West Indies duo Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo and England all-rounder Ravi Bopara.
Jason Holder, Lendl Simmons, Ryan ten Doeschate, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Grant Elliott, Ahmed Shehzad and Herschelle Gibbs are the other big attractions at the players’ draft which will take place on September 30. Foreign players placed in A category will have a salary cap of $70,000, while those in categories B, C and D can earn up to $50,000, $40,000 and $30,000 respectively.
Meanwhile, Comila Victorians, the reigning BPL champions, have signed Pakistan all-rounder Imad Wasim, Sri Lanka all-rounder Thisara Perera and Pakistani pacer Sohail Tanvir. They have also retained Ashar Zaidi and Nuwan Kulasekera.
Rajshahi have roped in West Indies star Darren Sammy and Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Sami. Barisal have had a quite business so far as they have signed just one player in the form of Dilshan Munaweera so far. Nicholas Pooran, Riki Wessels, Kevon Cooper, Mohammad Asghar and Benny Howell will play for Khulna Titans.