Former India captain Rahul Dravid has joined Dublin Guardians as co-owner ahead of the inaugural European T20 Premier League (ETPL), which starts on August 26. An Indian consortium secured ownership of the Dublin franchise in the six-team competition.
Dravid became the latest former international cricketer to invest in the tournament. The league features franchises from Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Organisers will run the competition until September 20 across 33 matches.
“Dublin already has a passionate cricketing community and enormous potential for growth,” Dravid said.
“Nurturing the next generation has always been important to me, and I believe the ETPL can play a meaningful role in that journey.”
The organisers have attracted several former and current international players into ownership roles. Glenn Maxwell co-owns Belfast Wolves, while Steve Waugh forms part of the ownership group at Amsterdam Flames.
Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills hold stakes in Edinburgh Castle Rockers. Chris Gayle has joined Glasgow Cosmic as co-owner. Rotterdam Dockers features an ownership group that includes Jonty Rhodes, Faf du Plessis and Heinrich Klaasen.
The ETPL also plans to bring active international players into the competition. Maxwell, Du Plessis and Klaasen will feature in the tournament alongside Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Santner and Liam Livingstone.
Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan co-founded the league. The organisers launched the tournament alongside Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association. The ETPL will become Europe’s first ICC-sanctioned multi-country franchise T20 competition.
The organisers want to grow cricket markets outside England and push the sport deeper into mainland Europe through the new tournament structure.
