The IPL franchises have emerged as clear winners when it comes to players deciding between playing for them or their home sides in the upcoming Champions League Twenty20. Eight players were originally nominated for two squads and were given 48 hours to decide which team they would play for before the final squads were announced today, reports espncricinfo.
Brad Haddin, Doug Bollinger and Brett Lee have all chosen to play for their respective IPL franchise over New South Wales; Warriors have lost Jacques Kallis and Davy Jacobs to IPL teams; Trinidad & Tobago will be without the services of Dwayne Bravo, who will play for Chennai Super Kings, and Kieron Pollard, who is in the Mumbai Indians squad; and Aiden Blizzard has chosen Mumbai over the South Australia Redbacks.
Eleven of the thirteen teams have now announced their squads for the tournament, with the English counties who reach the Friends life t20 final to confirm their squads on August 27. The qualifying round for the Champions League begins on September 19, with the main tournament scheduled for September 23-October 9.
All the franchises have announced full-strength squads, which means there will be no rest for the India players, who only finish their tour of England on September 16.
Gautam Gambhir, who suffered a concussion during the ongoing Oval Test, is in the Kolkata Knight Riders' squad while MS Dhoni will lead Chennai Super Kings and Sachin Tendulkar will lead Mumbai Indians. Munaf Patel and Suresh Raina are the other players in the current India Test squad who will be involved in the Champions League.
Mumbai have also included Harbhajan Singh, who pulled out of the England tour after the second Test with an abdominal muscle strain.
One big-name player missing from the squads was Andrew Symonds who was not named in Mumbai's XV. New South Wales chose to leave out the upcoming Pakistan-born batsman Usman Khawaja, who was granted a visa to India after initially being denied it.
Cape Cobras: JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Justin Kemp, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Richard Levi, Johann Louw, Justin Ontong, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Andrew Puttick, Michael Rippon, Owais Shah, Dale Steyn, Dane Vilas
Warriors: Johan Botha, Nicky Boje, Mark Boucher, Andrew Birch, Colin Ingram, Justin Kreusch, Lyall Meyer, Makhaya Ntini, Wayne Parnell, Ashwell Prince, Jon-Jon Smuts, Kelly Smuts, Rusty Theron, Craig Thyssen, Lonwabo Tsotsobe
Mumbai Indians: Aiden Blizzard, Yuzvendra Chahal, James Franklin, Davy Jacobs, Dhawal Kulkarni, Suryakumar Yadav, Lasith Malinga, Ali Murtaza, Munaf Patel, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, T Suman, Sachin Tendulkar
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Mayank Agarwal, S Aravind, Raju Bhatkal, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Arun Karthik, Virat Kohli, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, J Syed Mohammed, Dirk Nannes, Asad Pathan, Saurabh Tiwary Daniel Vettori
Chennai Super Kings: R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni, Michael Hussey, Shadab Jakati, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina, Suraj Randiv, Wriddhiman Saha, S Anirudha, Tim Southee, Scott Styris, M Vijay
Kolkata Knight Riders: Iqbal Abdulla, Shakib Al Hasan, L Balaji, Rajat Bhatia, Manvinder Bisla, Gautam Gambhir, Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan, Shami Ahmed, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary, Jaidev Unadkat
New South Wales Blues: Stuart Clark, Patrick Cummins, Nathan Hauritz, Josh Hazelwood, Moises Henriques, Phillip Hughes, Simon Katich, Nic Maddinson, Steve O'Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Daniel Smith, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner, Shane Watson
South Australia Redbacks: Cameron Borgas, Daniel Christian, Tom Cooper, Callum Ferguson, Daniel Harris, Michael Klinger, Nathan Lyon, Tim Ludeman, Aaron O'Brien, Gary Putland, Adil Rashid, Kane Richardson, Chadd Sayers, James Smith, Shaun Tait
Auckland : Andre Adams, James Adams, Michael Bates, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Roneel Hira, Gareth Hopkins, Anaru Kitchen, Bruce Martin, Chris Martin, Kyle Mills, Colin Munro, Daryl Tuffey, Rob Quiney, Lou Vincent
Trinidad & Tobago: Samuel Badree, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Kevon Cooper, Rayad Emrit, Daren Ganga, Sherwin Ganga, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Mohammed, Dave Mohammed, Sunil Narine, William Perkins, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons
Ruhuna: Mahela Udawatte, Dinesh Chandimal, Sanath Jayasuriya, Janaka Gunaratne, Milinda Siriwardana, TM Sampath, Yashodha Lanka, Shihan Kamileen, Amal Athulathmudali, Arosh Janoda, Shalika Karunanayake, Omesh Wijesiriwardene, Alankara Asanka Silva, Chinthaka Perera, Bhanuka Rajapaksa
