Australian trio Matthew Wade, Moises Henriques, Adam Zampa to feature in Major League Cricket
May 28, 2023
Melbourne [Australia], May 28 : Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, Moises Henriques and Adam Zampa have become the latest Australia players who are set to feature in the inaugural edition of the United States T20 tournament.
Henriques will take up the captaincy role for the Washington Freedom franchise. The 36-year-old has led the Big Bash League franchise the Sixers to back-to-back titles in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
He could still be joined by two more BBL teammates as opening batter Josh Philippe and fast bowler Ben Dwarshuis are also being linked to the Washington franchise for the July tournament.
On the other hand, Australia's star white-ball spinner Adam Zampa is also set to join the Kolkata Knight Riders-owned franchise, Los Angeles Knight Riders. While Matthew Wade is another to have signed with an MLC club.
Zampa and Wade who have spent the past two months in the Indian Premier League outfits Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans respectively.
Zampa has claimed eight wickets in six matches for the Royals, while the versatile wicketkeeper-batter has struggled to make his way into the playing XI of the defending champions. Former India wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha has kept him out of the side for almost the entire season.
Till now, Washington has announced the most number of overseas signings out of the six MLC franchises with Henriques joining South African pair of Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen, New Zealand's Glenn Phillips and Adam Milne, and Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.
CNSW Head of Male Elite Cricket Michael Klinger, has been tasked with heading the Washington Freedom's high-performance program has said that he was "pleasantly surprised" with the quality of players in the US while speaking to cricket.com.au.
"The talent is there, there's no doubt about that. There's a lot of ex-players from the subcontinent who've played international cricket or been part of IPL franchises or PSL (Pakistan Super League) franchises," Klinger said.
"There were players who had been in first-class systems in the subcontinent, first-class systems in South Africa who left for different reasons. So there was definitely a positive feel about the quality that was there and that they'd be able to match it against some of our high quality overseas players as well," Klinger concluded.
