The Inaugural Edition of the UAE Twenty20 League has been picking up pace in terms of setting up teams and signing up world-class coaching staff. Former Australian Cricketer Tom Moody, Who has tons of experience coaching sides from various domestic leagues around the world, has been signed up by the famed Glazer family as team director.
The former all-rounder has tasted success in various domestic leagues, significantly winning the IPL in 2016 with the Sunrisers Hyderabad as the head coach. Moody is also a part of set-ups in England, the West Indies and Sri Lanka as well.
This time around, he has been assigned the task of putting together the team and coaches. When contacted, Moody, whose IPL contract is up for renewal this year, said, "Your request will need to go through the franchise itself, unfortunately." Cricbuzz has reached out to a franchise representative.
Not just him but former Indian fielding coach R Sridhar has been roped in by Capri Global. Hailing from the city of Hyderabad, Sridhar has joined the franchise, which is owned by a Mumbai-Dubai businessman, Rajesh Sharma.
Sridar is said to be the coaching director with a similar responsibility as that of Moody. The former Hyderabad player confirmed signing up for the Capri's team in the league, which has been rechristened as International League T20 or IL T20.
With 32 games, IL T20 will run from January 6 to February 12. The league will also be announcing the rules for signing players outside of a draft, which it proposes to hold going forward. Each team will be allowed to sign four-five players of their choice.
Similarly, The Adani Group, which also owns a franchise in the six-team league, is said to be in talks with current Lucknow SuperGiants in IPL Andy Flower and is close to signing up the Zimbabwean who, like Moody, has his presence in many T20 leagues, including in the IPL, PSL and The Hundred. Flower and Adani officials did not reply to a query.
Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders, RIL's Mumbai Indians and GMR's Delhi Capitals are the other three owners and are reported to have their own cricketing set-ups and starting to build up teams through their existing staff. The league is expected to announce the allocation of franchises to each investor soon.
Details of other franchises will be known soon, but it is learnt that the league will introduce the concept of floating teams and sharing of venues. Apart from Knight Riders, GMR and Capri, the other three will share venues but may not have a permanent base.
The Knight Riders have already declared having purchased the Abu Dhabi team. The Capri team has been allocated to Sharjah, and Dubai will be GMR's base.