Bridgetown (Barbados), April 14 (IANS/CMC) Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain Mohammad Hafeez is the latest international cricketer to sign-up for the inaugural Caribbean Premier League (CPL) scheduled for later this year.
Hafeez joins Australia duo Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist and former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor as international franchise players already contracted for the CPL, scheduled for July 29 to Aug 26.
The 32-year-old all-rounder is one of only eight players in history to have scored more than 1,000 international runs in the shortest form of the game and the only one from Pakistan.
Only last month he blitzed the South Africa attack, scoring 86 – his highest score in the T20Is – from only 51 balls with nine fours and four sixes before taking three for 25 with his off-spin.
“The World T20 in the Caribbean allowed me to experience playing T20 in the Caribbean and I am looking forward to playing there once again,” says Hafeez, who is second-placed in the International Cricket Council’s rankings of all-rounders in both T20Is and ODIs.
“The people in the West Indies love their cricket and I am sure the fans will get behind their teams. I also hope that cricket fans back in Pakistan and around the world will follow me during this first CPL season, and join in the fun.”
His Twenty20 career strike-rate of 130.73 runs per hundred balls marks him down as one of the most dangerous top-order players in the modern game while his bowling economy rate is 6.31.
Also already contracted for the CPL are six West Indies franchise players: Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Marlon Samuels.
–IANS/CMC
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