Tuesday 7 April 2009

Kings XI acquires South Africans

Sreesanth's out.
Brett Lee's likely to play, but nobody's 100% sure.
Jerome Taylor's also out, due to a road accident.

So King XI is looking a little bleak this year. They've had to bring in a new player to replace Jerome Taylor, and it's Yusuf Abdulla, a South African player. The 26 year old was signed on because he's South African, basically. Ness Wadia stated this as a reason for signing him up:
"He knows the ground better than anybody."

They're referring to Kingsmead, where Kings XI will play 6 matches.

It's not as though they've picked up just any player, though. In the 26 T20 matches he's played domestically, he has an economy rate of 5.83 (I suppose now would be as good a time as any to identify that he's a left-arm swing bowler). That's pretty impressive, but how will it compare when playing against the greats of the game?

The movement of the IPL to South Africa is seeing a greater demand for locals to be helping out with the team/being in the team. Kings XI have also signed Dave Nosworthy, a coach of one of the provincial teams, to assist Tom Moody. Last week, Charl Langeveldt was signed onto the Kolkata Knight Riders, after they considered CJ de Villiers but eventually opted for Langeveldt's experience. This year, a considerable number of South Africans are debuting in the IPL, including Tyron Henderson (Rajasthan Royals), Dillon du Preez (Bangalore Royal Challengers), Ryan McLaren (Mumbai Indians), Roelof van der Merwe (Bangalore Royal Challengers) and Morné van Wyk (Kolkata Knight Riders).

Notice that last name? He's turning up everywhere I look.
Dillon du Preez has a smooth name. Should therefore be a smooth player.
ROFL is also playing for the first time. Wishing him luck.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the tournament is slowly morphing into a SAPL. I think this is a cheap stunt to bring in more domestic audience into the games.

Amy said...

Or get more first-hand knowledge of SA conditions before playing?

Whichever you will. haha.