Scotland’s Safyaan Sharif has expressed his interest in playing in the Emirates Cricket Board’s new UAE T20 League that will be held later this year.
The tournament will feature five franchises with 22 matches held in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai over a period of 24 days.
The 16-man squads of each franchise will include six international star players, two emerging cricketers from full member countries, three from Associate nations, two juniors and three UAE cricketers.
As a Scotland international, Sharif would be eligible to be one of the players from an Associate nation, and the 27-year-old, who took the final wicket in Scotland’s thrilling six-run win against England in their ODI earlier this month, has confirmed his interest in featuring in the inaugural edition.
“Yes definitely. Any league that is being held around the world, I will put my hand up to those and put my name on the list,” he told Sport360.
“At the end of the day, you will get experience and that exposure is by playing best cricket. I heard about this UAE T20 league and I’m really, really interested in it. So fingers crossed that I do get picked for one team and that I can go on and make an impact there.”
The UAE would be the second Associate nation after Canada to host a T20 league this year. Canada’s event, which begins on Thursday, has attracted some of the biggest names in cricket, including Steve Smith, David Warner and Chris Gayle, as well as giving their own Canadian players to play.
With the UAE internationals also to feature in the ECB tournament, Sharif insists it’s the way forward for Associate cricketers to be noticed.
“It’s a good step forward for Associate cricket,” he added. “This is the kind of exposure that Associate cricketers need and there are so many players who are capable of playing in these big leagues but they have not just had that exposure. I think with a platform like this UAE T20 League, they can build on that. It’s about getting experience and hopefully there will be players who will get noticed and get picked for the bigger T20 tournaments.”
