Twenty20 leagues all operate in the same way. They try and attract as many stars as possible and then they use local players as padding. However, different leagues have to settle for different stars.
Some players will turn up for anything. Azhar Mahmood, Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait – obviously all of these guys are going to be appearing in the Bangladesh Premier League. But who else is there? Who else has flown over to Bangladesh for an unlikely payday?
Here are our favourites:
- Kevon Cooper – nice West Indian vowel there
- Jason Roy
- Josh Cobb
- Darren Stevens
- Ben Edmondson – has also played for Denmark and ‘New Age Impi’ who were apparently captained by Paul Collingwood
- Shane Harwood
- Daniel Smith (hasn’t played a first-class match since 2010 and averages 24.35)
- Riki Wessels
- Charles Coventry – who once held a world record
- Cameron Borgas
- Chris Liddle – he’s 6ft 4ins, so we’re assuming he’s a bowler even though he averages 51.89 with the ball
How do these deals come about? Who contacts whom? Were Rangpur Riders desperate to have Cameron Borgas in their side? Did they stop at nothing to secure his services?
How does Daniel Smith get a contract? He’s not a professional cricketer. Presumably he doesn’t have an agent. How did Khulna Royal Bengals get hold of him?
How in hell does Chris Liddle find himself in the same team as Tillakaratne Dilshan, Shakib Al Hasan and Shahid Afridi? What evidence was put in front of the Dhaka Gladiators management team that made them say: “Yes! Chris Liddle is the man for us. Those six, penetrating overs he bowled against the touring West Indians last year in that washed out fixture at Hove have utterly convinced us. He completely outbowled Kirk Ogilvy Wernars in what was technically a first-class fixture and there aren’t many people who can say they’ve done that.
Ah, Darren Stevens. The journeyman’s journeyman.
When Darren Stevens made his first class debut, Josh Cobb was seven years old.
Did you not get invited, KC? We’re all playing in it – me, Ged, Sam, Ceci, Smudge, Dandy Dan… Sarah is opening the bowling for the Barisal Bunsen Burners! Apparently the clubs just trawled through all the cricket websites they could find and picked people based on their depth of understanding of cricket. I can’t believe they missed you! I got in ‘cos I said something about shutting your eyes and slogging or something. And we each get a million Stanford Dollars a match! It’s great. I can’t believe you’re not here. You and Charles Colvile seem to be the only ones missing.
Seems like everyone’s really enjoying themselves as well:
https://twitter.com/RikiWessels/status/299132826387898368
#headpopsoon
I eagerly clicked on the links only to find they didn’t lead to your articles about these sportsmen, but to their cricinfo profiles. To make up for this, I ask that you start writing an article on each of the aforementioned cricketers.
If you need to find a way get out of this, you could contact Ajay Shirke.
We could just direct all of the links to this page.
Darren Stevens is awesome.
Darren Stevens is awesome.
Is Charles Coventry the only famous cricketer named after a Midland’s city?
Darren Stevens is awesome
The Earl of Leicester played cricket
Also Derbyshire had a fast bowler in the 1920s who was called Derby Loney
Lester King?
http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/player/52293.html
I’ll get my coat.
Ben Stokes
We’ve a suspicion Charles Coventry might have used our West Indian cricketer name generator.
Ah, the famous 113 comment thread. Thems were the days.
Geurts Appleton
Not too bad.
They’re probably the only players willing to take IOUs as payment.
Maybe Cameron Borgas got his place through being Jason’s brother.
Why is Riki Wessels called Riki? Neither his first name nor his middle name bear any resemblance to the name Riki. Also, should it not be ‘Ricky’? It’s this kind of thing that makes me lose faith in humanity.
*obligatory Darren Stevens is awesome*
HendRIK, we guess.
Most of the players you’re bagging bowl seam so it’s safe to say their local replacements would be worse regardless.
Darren Stevens is awesome. His cricinfo article states he played for Dhaka Gladiators and Dhaka Gladiators.
should sign The Perundi.
That photograph of Daniel Smith
http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh-premier-league-2013/content/player/7644.html
makes him look like he’s lived underground his whole life and has just been shown sunlight for the first time. Either that or he’s a cross between a man and a startled ferret. It’s magnificent.
Thank Christ for helmets.
Indeed. Why go with the nickname ‘Smithy’ when they could have used ‘The Troglodyte’ or something like that?
Is he on drugs? He is an Australian sportsman after all.
Re Aussie drugs, I wonder if any names are going to be named in the cricket world.
Maybe we should start naming some names here.
You go first.
Shane Warne.
Your turn.
We’re just naming names, right? We’re not naming names for any particular reason. There’s no MEANING behind our naming these names. They’re just names. That we’re naming.
Matthew Hayden.
Wild horses wouldn’t drag the words Brendon Julian from my lips
I recently named Matthew Hayden’s name “Execution of Personal Nomenclature Skillset”.
He’s certainly demonstrating the skillset required to execute such a moniker.
Warwick Armstrong, who’s:
a) Clearly on drugs
b) Too dead to sue for the defamation above
c) Named after a Midlands city
Don Bradman.
I heard don bradman practised as a boy hitting a ball with a stump while on lsd no wonder he was so good
Warwick is a town, not a city, Bert.
Yes, this comment is sad.
Sadder even because I thought of Warwick Armstrong first time around and Googled to find out whether or not Warwick (and Stoke) qualified as Cities.
I should have better things to do, I do have better things to do…
Arthur Shrewsbury
Dudley Nourse (okay, it’s a town, whatever)
I think drugs were legal when Don Bradman played, Did we ever find out the current Australian Test squad player unofficially warned for taking cocaine on the 24th Oct 2012?
Is that a real thing?
Forget the comma out of place, i hardly ever post here.
We should all be playing in the BPL. They don’t pay you to play. As long as you can afford the airfare to get there!
Which explains why Dan Smith is playing – as he is not a professional cricketer he doesn’t need to be paid.
Dan Smith also plays for the Sydney Sixers after the Sydney Thunder, who probably wouldn’t beat any team in the BPL, dropped him from their squad.
T20 leagues like BBL, IPL etc will completely destroy Test cricket one day.
You tell them, Cricket..
Are Indians allowed in slpl?
Are Indians allowed in BLPL?
I like IPL