LAHORE: South Afri­can top-order batter Reeza Hendricks and Sri Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana are among 485 players to have registered for the HBL-Pakistan Super League Players’ Draft, which will be held here at the National Cricket Academy on Dec 13.

Hendriks, who is ranked ninth in the ICC’s ranking for T20 batters, and Theekshana, placed fifth among T20 bowlers, have not played in the PSL before.

Other batters like Hendricks’ fifth-ranked compatriot Rilee Rossouw, who has switched to Quetta Gladiators from Multan Sultans, and sixth-ranked Dawid Malan are also in the list of players released by the Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday.

Players from England have registered the most interest in with 158 of them having made themselves available for the ninth season of the glitzy T20 extravaganza.

Apart from Malan, there are two other England players who featured at last month’s ODI World Cup to have expressed their interest including David Willey and Gus Atkinson.

As many as 46 international players are in the platinum category with 76 in the diamond category.

Left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein. Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Romario Shepherd, Brandon King and Kyle Mayers are among 58 players from the West Indies.

All-rounder Mohammad Nabi, pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi and spinner Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman are among 36 from Afghanistan who have committed to playing this season.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2023