The International Cricket Council (ICC) has officially sanctioned the second edition of the T10 League to be held from November 23 in Sharjah, the tournament organisers said on Tuesday.
The apex body's validation comes as a shot in the arm for the league that will have two new teams taking them to a strong eight teams and a ten-day competition, according to a release.
The T10 League is the evolution of cricket, from 50-over games to 10-over games. The ICC, last season, had given the go-ahead to the organisers to run the first 10 overs format league in the world. The Eoin Morgan-led Kerala Kings won the inaugural edition last year.
"This sanction from ICC for T10 League gives our partners, stakeholders and more importantly the players a much-needed boost. Having said that, it additionally gives us the responsibility to ensure we keep growing year-on-year and make this format globally acceptable," Shaji Ul Mulk, Chairman, T10 League, said in a statement.
The second edition of the tournament will have the player draft in September. Afghanistan spin wizard Rashid Khan (Maratha Arabians), Pakistan's Shahid Afridi (Pakhtoons) and Shoaib Malik (Punjabi Legends), England's Eoin Morgan (Kerala Kings), New Zealand's Brendon McCullum (Rajputs), West Indies' Sunil Narine (Bengal Tigers) and Darren Sammy (Northern Warriors) and Australia's Shane Watson (Karachians) have already been roped in as Icon players for their respective franchises.
"The sanction from the ICC will only add further shine to the global appeal of the event. We believe that value creation for the new teams will see a positive growth from year one. From four-day league to a ten-day league with more teams and a larger pool of international players is a testament of faith shown by fans and stakeholders," said Salman Iqbal, President, T10 League.
Here are the teams and complete squad:
Punjabi Legends: Shoaib Malik (icon), Evin Lewis, Chris Jordan, Luke Ronchi, Liam Plunkett
Kerala Kings: Eoin Morgan (icon), Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir, Paul Stirling, Dasun Shanaka
Maratha Arabians: Rashid Khan (icon), James Faulkner, Alex Hales, Dwayne Bravo, Kamran Akmal
Pakhtoons: Shahid Afridi (icon), Colin Ingram, David Willey, Mohammad Irfan, Liam Dawson
Bengal Tigers: Sunil Narine (icon), Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Asif Ali, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Karachians: Shane Watson (icon), Jofra Archer, Anton Devcich, Colin de Grandhomme, Ben Laughlin
Kerala Kings: Eoin Morgan (icon), Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir, Paul Stirling, Dasun Shanaka
Rajputs: Brendon McCullum (icon), Mohammad Hafeez, Rilee Rossouw, Chris Lynn, Mohammad Shahzad