Guptill and Simmons snare top money in CPL T20 draft
What's the story
Big-hitting New Zealand opener Martin Guptill and West Indies counterpart Lendl Simmons are the biggest buys of the Caribbean Premier League 2018 drafts, which were held on Thursday.
Barbados Tridents forked out $70,000 for Simmons whereas St Lucia Stars, which finished bottom last season, spent a massive sum of $90,000 to get hold of Martin Guptill.
Big money
Retained players bag $160,000 worth contract
Sohail Tanvir, who was last edition's top wicket taker (Guyana Amazon Warriors), Andre Russell, who missed the previous edition due to a doping ban (Jamaica Tallawahs), Chris Gayle (St Kitts and Nevis Patriots) and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo (Trinbago Knight Riders) were retained by their respective sides for the first round of draft pick.
The retained players have bagged a contract worth $160,000.
Data
47 players sold at the 2018 CPL draft
The Caribbean Premier League, which sees participation from 6 teams, had to fill a total of 108 slots with squads limited to 18 players each. 61 players were retained which meant that only 47 new names had to be picked from the draft.
Undisclosed fee
Marquee players had pre-negotiated contracts
Marquee players like Shahid Afridi (Jamaica Tallawahs), Shoaib Malik (Guyana Amazon Warriors), Evin Lewis (St Kitts and Nevis Patriots) and Chris Lynn (Trinbago Knight Riders) were directly bought by the franchises after personal negotiations. They did not enter the draft process.
Kieron Pollard was the biggest transfer after being bought by St Lucia Star for $130,000.
Making history
Lamichhane first Nepali to bag a contract from CPL
Nepal's leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane is set to become the first Nepali player in the CPL after the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots signed him for $5,000.
Interestingly, Sandeep also scripted history by becoming the first cricketer from his country to be picked by an IPL franchise.
English cricketers failed to attract bids as the NatWest T20 Blast's schedule is expected to overlap with CPL.