Three HK T20 Blitz players in Bloem City Blazers squad for Global League
Dwayne Smith, Chris Jordan and Rayad Emrit will represent the Hong Kong-owned franchise in the South African tournament
The Blazers, who are taking part in South Africa’s Global T20 League, picked Dwayne Smith, Chris Jordan and Rayad Emrit in the draft on Sunday, along with Keiron Pollard, Dane Paterson with South Africa’s David Miller being their franchise player.
Smith played for the triumphant Kowloon Cantons team at the Hong Kong event, while England’s Jordan and West Indian Emrit were in the Kaitak team beaten by Cantons in the final.
The City Group’s ambition to nurture youth players was also apparent in their decision to pick 18-year-old SA Schools player Akhona Mnyaka, who is from East London and was the youngest player in the draw.
Blazers had second pick in the draft and went for Paterson after Durban Qalanders took another South African, all-rounder Chris Morris. Proteas fast bowler Dale Steyn was then snapped up by Cape Town Knight Riders.
Blazers were unable to recruit a Hong Kong player because they had taken up their quota of overseas cricketers.
“Due to a limitation of five overseas players in the squad of 18, we had to be extremely selective,” said Blazers owner Alok Jain.
The league is played over the last two months of the year and has eight franchise from Benoni, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Stellenbosch, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth.