CPL T20 Draft takes place today in London

THE 2018 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 Draft will take place today, from 11 am (TT time), in London, England.

And the event will be aired live on top regional sports network Sportsmax.

The number of players that have put their names forward for the draft has increased, as has the number of countries from which the overseas players are from.

There has been a 36 per cent increase in player registrations overall and a 50 per cent uplift in overseas players who have shown an interest in playing in Hero CPL in 2018.

A total of 227 overseas players have registered for the draft, an increase from 151 from last year. There are 121 West Indian cricketers that have put their names forward for selection, an increase from 107 from last year.

There are cricketers from 18 countries who will be in the player pool on draft day, with the most coming from Pakistan (53) and Sri Lanka (32). There are also cricketers from England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland, Canada, United States, Oman, Hong Kong, Scotland, Nepal, United Arab Emirates and Kenya.

Some of the players that will be available for selection or retention this year will be Brendon McCullum, Chris Lynn, Mohammad Amir, D’Arcy Short, Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, Hashim Amla, Shahid Afridi and Usman Khawaja as well as English players Alex Hales and Adil Rashid.

This year the tournament window means that all West Indies players will be available for the tournament.

In addition to the players that have registered for the draft, or those that have been retained from last year, teams will also select a player from the ICC Americas region. These players can either be retained from last year or from the USA Cricket squad that has been taken part in the current Super50 competition.