OTTAWA – Former Australia captain Steve Smith, who is serving an international ban, is one of the 10 marquee players named for the proposed Global T20 Canada league.
If the tournament proceeds as scheduled in June, it will mark Smith’s first bit of cricket action since Cricket Australia imposed a 12-month ban on him for his role in the ball-tampering scandal on their tour of South Africa in March.
While the former Australia captain can’t play international or first-class cricket in his country, the ban doesn’t extend to club cricket or global leagues – although his Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals chose to drop him for the 2018 edition.
Smith and Chris Lynn are the Australians on the GT20 list, which also features Shahid Afridi (Pakistan), Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Darren Sammy (Windies) and David Miller (South Africa).
The tournament is set to run from June 28 to July 15. It has six teams – five from Canada and one Cricket West Indies representative team – playing 22 matches. The players’ draft will take place on May 30, a statement from the organisers said.
With Cricket Australia encouraging the three players penalised for the Cape Town incident to stay in touch with the game, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are also in line for comebacks, although no dates have been set.
While Bancroft was cleared to play in Western Australia's Premier Cricket league, Warner is expected to turn out for his Sydney club side Randwick Petersham.