Curator: Aakash Biswas
Last updated: August 28, 2024 21:27 IST
Shikhar Dhawan (Photo: Sportzpics from IPL)
ILT20 CEO David Whyte said he is interested in featuring former India opener Shikhar Dhawan for the third season of ILT20, which begins on January 11, 2025.
ILT20 CEO David White wants the third tournament to be bigger and better than the last. In addition to bringing more people to the venues and providing a better experience for those watching on screen, White is also determined to recruit top athletes to the team to make ILT20 Season 3 a huge success.
Speaking to The Times of India, White said he is interested in recruiting former India opener Shikhar Dhawan into the team. Dhawan recently announced his retirement from international and domestic cricket and will play in the next edition of the Legends League Cricket (LLC) tournament.
White said ILT20 is interested in having Dhawan play in the UAE and is currently exploring how to make this happen.
“Yes, I think there have been some enquiries in that direction, but that’s happened in the last 24 hours. So, I don’t have anything to report on that, but there is certainly interest,” White told a leading Indian daily.
“But we don’t know if he will continue playing cricket at that level in future. We made enquiries as soon as we heard the news but as of now we have not received any further information. We are just trying to find out if he has retired from cricket completely. Of course, we don’t hide our interest,” he added.
“I don’t want it to be a legends tournament.”
White clarified that ILT20 is not intended to be a league for retired players and is focused on attracting international-caliber players, but on Dhawan, the tournament’s CEO said the former India batsman is still at “international level”.
“I think we need to be very clear that this is an international-style, high-profile tournament. Shikhar Dhawan is not but he is still at international level. We don’t want to make this a legends tournament. This is a high-level international team, we have nine international players, all of them current players at IPL or international level and most of them are promising young players. So this is not a retirement tournament at all,” Whyte said.
“It’s a high-level tournament and in fact after the first two seasons of our league, several players who played with us later joined the IPL. There are two really interesting examples – Jake Fraser-McGurk, who played last year and went on to the IPL, and a more recent example is Jamie Smith, who just recently scored a hundred in a Test match (against Sri Lanka).
“He also played (ILT20) last year. So, we are looking for current international players, IPL players, but it’s also an opportunity for up-and-coming players to make a name for themselves. So, this is a great opportunity. Some of the young players from the UAE have really stepped up and played well. This is a great opportunity for established and up-and-coming players. I really want to emphasise that this is a quality tournament with current international and IPL players,” he added.
Aakash Biswas is a cricket enthusiast whose dream of playing for India paved the way for a fascinating path into journalism. With comprehensive coverage spanning the 1980s and 1990s, Aakash Biswas has…Read more
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