Aussie Cricket League: Local and international stars set to take part

The second edition of the Aussie Cricket League will see local players taken on international stars next month. See who is set to take part.

If you’re a fan of high quality cricket, you won’t want to miss the second edition of the Aussie Cricket League.

Set to be held at Casey Fields, the tournament will see six teams including local and international stars battle it out in several Twenty20 games from December 18 to December 23.

The teams include Afghanistan, Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and a World XI made up of players from NSW and internationals.

On its website, the Aussie Cricket League describes itself as the “most ambitious and transformational venture ever undertaken in the Australian cricket landscape”.

St Albans’ Arosh Janoda will take part in the competition. Picture: Valeriu Campan

More than 1000 players registered to take part in the competition before they were short-listed into squads of between 40 and 50 players per team.

Selection trials then took place before the final teams were selected.

International players set to take part in the event include Kamran Akmal (Pakistan), Manpreet Gony (India), Mohammad Amir (Pakistan) and Nuwan Kulasekara (Sri Lanka).

Australia’s team will include Ben Laughlin and Nathan Reardon.

Aussie Cricket League director Harry Singh said the tournament’s purpose was to give locals the opportunity to play alongside international stars.

“We want to showcase the best talent Victoria has to offer,” he said.

“The selection process was very tough because so many talented players applied to play at this tournament. From the registrations, we ask for a MyCricket ID so we’re able to look at the statistics of local players.

“This tournament gives players a platform to show their ability to a large audience. Each squad has 13 locals and two international players.”

Nuwan Kulasekara will play for the Sri Lankan XI.

Next month’s competition is set to be broadcast to the world with games available on the organisation's app, YouTube and Facebook page.

“We’re going bigger than last year — we’ve got more cameras,” Singh said.

“We’ve got followers all around the world (the Aussie Cricket League Facebook page has over 160,000 followers) which is really exciting.

“We’ll have DRS, our own version of ‘snicko’ and many things you see while watching an international game.”

The final Australian squad is the only team to not have been named so far.

AUSSIE CRICKET LEAGUE SQUADS

Afghanistan XI: Karim Haji, Basit Ali, Zarak Aseel, Javid Totakhil, Nazir Shinwari, Rihan Sayed, Parviz Malikzai, Adam Amin, Hussain Ali, Sayed Akbar Shah, Murtaza Ali, Mohammad Dawa Khan, Tahsinullah Sultani, Alamdar Razam, Ridwan Laghmani, Javed Ahmadi.

India XI: Harsaroup Singh, Talwinder Prince, Nikhil Chaudhary, Arthav Deshpandey, Amritpal Grewal, Puru Gaur, Vishalbir Thind, Sharad Lumba, Tej Gandhi, Harshveer Singh, Jai Singh, Vikramjit Singh, Barinder Sran, Stephen Wiig, Manpreet Goni, Jatinder Tatt.

Pakistan XI: Kamran Akmal, Fawad Malook, Adeel Raja, Mohammad Amir, Yousaf Iqbal, Aziz Ullah, Shakeel Afridi, Hasan Ali, Babur Nadeem, Umair Butt, Niman Safdar, Sohail Sadiq, Abdul Haseeb, Saad Khatak, Afzal Ahmed, Qamar Awan.

Sri Lanka XI: Mahela Udawatte, Malith Cooray, Harsha De Silva, Damith Mapa, Arosh Janoda, Vinu Mohotty, Hematha Jayasundara, Dilan Chandima, Nilochana Perera, Praveen Dilanka, Andy Solomons, Amal Athulathmudali, Nuwan Kulasekara, Sahan Perera, Yoshan Kumara, Kalhan Sineth.

World XI: Suthkar Pillay, Gurpartap Singh, Saurav Sandhu, Asad Usman Warraich, Arun Chauhan, Sheery Gunowalia, Amanjyot Singh, Sajjad Qaiser, Shaminda Eranga, Muhammad Yasir Ali, Satheesh Fernandu, Anthony Alleyne, Pushpinder Jassal, Mohsin Raza, Bilar Qureshi.