The wait is finally over as GT20 Canada kick-starts on 28th Jun 2018 with the first match of the league between Toronto Nationals and Vancouver Knights.
All single day matches will start at 4 pm local time, while the double-headers will see the first game being played at 11 am local time. The tournament uses the similar play-off format used in the other major T20 Leagues.
For Nepal fans, it would mean that the match start times in their time zone will be 8:45 pm (Kathmandu) for the morning match and 1:45 am (Kathmandu) for the afternoon match in Toronto.
The tournament has been officially sanctioned by International Cricket Council (ICC) and the inaugural edition will be held from 28th Jun – 15th Jul, 2018 at Maple Leaf Cricket Club in Toronto. A total of 22 matches, including playoffs and the final will be played in the inaugural edition of the league.
The six teams for the inaugural edition are Toronto Nationals, Montreal Tigers, Edmonton Royals, Vancouver Knights, Winnipeg Hawks and a representative “B” squad from West Indies.
2018 Global T20 Canada Squads:
| Team Squads | |||||
| Players Draft | Toronto Nationals | Vancouver Knights | Montreal Tigers | Edmonton Royals | Winnipeg Hawks |
| 1st Round | Darren Sammy | Chris Gayle | Lasith Malinga | Shahid Afridi | Dwayne Bravo |
| 2nd Round | Steve Smith | Andre Russell | Sunil Narine | Chris Lynn | David Miller |
| 3rd Round | Kieron Pollard | Evin Lewis | Thisara Parera | Luke Ronchi | David Warner |
| 4th Round | Kamran Akmal | Tim Southee | Mohammad Hafeez | Mohammed Irfan | Lendl Simmons |
| 5th Round | Hussain Talat | Chadwick Walton | Denesh Ramdin | Sohail Tanvir | Darren Bravo |
| 6th Round | Rumman Raees | Fawad Ahmed | Sandeep Lamichhane (NEP) | Christian Jonker | Fidel Edwards |
| 7th Round | Nikhil Dutta (CAN) | Babar Hayat (HK) | Sikandar Raza | Wayne Parnell | Rayad Emrit |
| 8th Round | Johnson Charles | Sheldon Cottrell | Dasun Shanaka | Asif Ali | Ben McDermott |
| 9th Round | Kesrick Williams | Saad Bin Zafar (CAN) | Isuru Udana | Hasan Khan | Ali Khan |
| 10th Round | Mohammad Naveed (UAE) | Ruvindu Gunasekera (CAN) | George Worker | Agha Salman | Hamza Tariq (CAN) |
| 11th Round | Nizakat Khan (HK) | Srimantha Wijeratne (CAN) | Najibullah Zadran | Shaiman Anwar(UAE) | Junaid Siddique (CAN) |
| 12th Round | Farhan Malik (CAN) | Kamau Leverock (BER) | Cecil Pervez (CAN) | Ammar Khalid (CAN) | Tion Webster |
| 13th Round | Nitish Kumar (CAN) | Steven Jacobs | Ibrahim Khaleel (USA) | Satsimranjit Dhindsa (CAN) | Rizwan Cheema (CAN) |
| 14th Round | Usama Mir | Salman Nazar (CAN) | Dilon Heliger (CAN) | Ahmed Raza (UAE) | Hiral Patel (CAN) |
| 15th Round | Rohan Mustafa (UAE) | Rassie van der Dussen | Nicholas Kirton (CAN) | Simon Pervez (CAN) | Mark Deyal |
| 16th Round | Muhammad Umair Ghani (CAN) | Jeremy Gordon (CAN) | Rayyankhan Pathan (CAN) | Abraash Khan (CAN) | Kyle Phillip |
GT20 Canada organisers added further 2 Canadian players in each of the five franchise squads, with most of them being part of Canada U19 squad which took part in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup.
A total of 31 Associate member players (including the host nation, Canada’s players) were selected in the overall total of 80 players chosen from the draft (16 players per squad each). Among notable Associate member players, Rohan Mustafa (UAE), Babar Hayat (Hong Kong), Mohammad Naveed (#10 Ranked T20I bowler in the latest ICC rankings) (UAE), Sandeep Lamichhane (Nepal) and Shaiman Anwar (UAE) are going to take part in the inaugural GT20 edition in 2018.
Among the Associate member players, Rohan Mustafa, Nikhil Dutta, Sandeep Lamichhane, Babar Hayat & Hamza Tariq among few others have prior experience in playing in Global T20 league like the Indian Premier League (IPL), Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Hong Kong T20 Blitz, Everest Premier League & Dhangadhi Premier League in Nepal.
The tournament also marks the return of Steve Smith and David Warner from Australia, who were found guilty in ball-tampering incident earlier this year in a Test match against South Africa and are currently under 12 months suspension from Cricket Australia; however, this being a T20 sanctioned league outside Australia, they were given the permission to take part in the tournament.
Canada’s senior men’s squad members and upcoming young talent will get the opportunity to play alongside some of the bigger names in the World of Cricket and the exposure and experience will be vital’s to Canada’s success in future ICC tournaments.
While the tournament organisers announced earlier that it is not mandatory for Canada players to feature in the playing XI, the National squad members in the franchise team’s will be expected to take the field in the first match of the group stage.
The other Associate member nation players will be expected to feature heavily in the line-up’s. For Fantasy cricket fans and players, it would be wise to pick a 1-3-3-4 combination or a 1-4-3-3 combination for the first matches in the league phase. The all-rounders will be safe bets to pick as power players in the fantasy teams.
Good morning from Maple Leaf Cricket Ground. Ready and waiting for the action! #6sInThe6ix #GT20Canada pic.twitter.com/OgrFFbIaVn
— GT20 Canada (@GT20Canada) June 25, 2018
For viewership purposes, West Indies and Pakistan players will most likely start in the first XI for the first of the league matches for all the team’s. The ground has seen a bit of rain in the past few days and expect the pitch to be on the slower side. Pace bowlers bowling lot of slower deliveries and spinners will be looking to dominate the proceedings.
For the list of global broadcasters for the league, click here.
