Sharjah Warriors, one of the three teams in the UAE T20 league which are not owned by an IPL franchise, have named their 14 overseas players and one of the most shocking names in the list is Moeen Ali. Moeen is reportedly one of the marquee players who have been signed by Johannesburg Super Kings (a sister franchise of CSK) to play in the CSA T20 league which will run simultaneously with the UAE T20 league.
Sharjah Warriors are owned by Capri Global, which is an Indian corporate group, and their team director is R Sridhar who was the fielding coach of the Indian cricket team until very recently. The Warriors have been able to attract some big names, but Moeen’s name was totally unexpected because of his Super Kings connection.
Now it has created a very strange situation where a player has reportedly been signed by two different teams to play in two different leagues which will take place simultaneously.
When Kasi Viswanathan, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CSK, was contacted to have his comment on the Moeen situation, he told Cricbuzz that CSK themselves are surprised that Moeen’s name features in a squad of the UAE T20 league. Kasi further stated that they would approach Moeen and talk to him about this.
CSK CEO (in Cricbuzz) said "We just came to know that Moeen Ali is picked by a team in UAE T20 league, we will find out him".
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) August 19, 2022
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Apart from Moeen Ali, the other two big England players signed by Sharjah Warriors are Dawid Malan and Chris Woakes. Both of them are the regular members of England’s white ball teams. Woakes has, however, not played any cricket for past sometime because of injury.
Some other England players from the county circuit have also made it to the Warriors squad including the likes of Tom Kohler Cadmore who was a part of the Peshawar Zalmi squad in the last season of Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Here are the 14 direct signings that Sharjah Warriors claim to have made ahead of the opening UAE T20 league season –
Moeen Ali, Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes, Tom Kohler Cadmore, Chris Benjamin, Danny Briggs (all England), Mohammad Nabi, Noor Ahmad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Naveen ul Haq (all Afghanistan), Evin Lewis, Mark Deyal (West Indies), Bilal Khan (Oman), JJ Smit (Namibia)
Presenting our Warriors for the @ilt20official
Super excited for the upcoming season!! pic.twitter.com/VN4XKbVL70
Advertisement— Sharjah Warriors (@SharjahWarriors) August 18, 2022
