Dublin, July 2, 2026: The European T20 Premier League (ETPL) marked a significant milestone in its journeywith the completion of its inaugural Player Draft, as the league’s six franchises assembled their squads by selecting 36 players, with 12 each from Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association (KNCB).
The draft saw players distributed evenly across the six franchises, with the majority of the Dutch players selected by Amsterdam Flames and Rotterdam Dockers. Meanwhile, EdinburghCastle Rockers and Glasgow Cosmic selected nine of the 12 Scottish players, while Dublin Guardians and Belfast Wolves picked seven of the 12 Irish players.
Among the headline selections, Rotterdam Dockers secured highly rated all-rounder Jai Moondra with their opening pick of the draft. Moondra has emerged as one of Ireland’s brightestprospects and recently impressed against India in the T20I series, showcasing his wicket-taking abilities against the world champions. The Dockers further strengthened their squad by drafting Netherlands internationals Michael Levitt, Ryan Klein, VikramjitSingh and Saqib Zulfiqar, alongside Scotland’s Jasper Davidson.
Meanwhile, Belfast Wolves bolstered their ranks with experienced Ireland international Paul Stirling and emerging left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys, adding proven internationalquality to their inaugural roster.
R Ashwin, Captain and Mentor, Dublin Guardians, on the thought process behind his team’s picks, said: “While majority of our picks were Irish, I think nationality comes second; it’s about the quality of the player and how they will fit into our mix. I do believe that, going into an auctionor a draft, every single player that you pick must be a playable resource. Of course, there must be an exciting amount of skill that they put on display, but they must be very playable. If a player is unavailable, somebody should be able to seamlessly comein and fill up that role.”
Jonty Rhodes, Co-Owner, Rotterdam Dockers, said: “Jai Moondra was someone we were particularly keen tobring into the squad after the way he has announced himself on the international stage. He is an exciting young talent with tremendous potential, and we’re delighted to have secured him. Alongside Jai, we’ve put together a really exciting group of playersfrom across Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. We believe we have a strong, balanced squad with the depth and quality to be highly competitive, and we’re looking forward to seeing them come together when the league gets underway.”
The remaining franchises also completed strong squads during the draft:
Amsterdam Flames: Curtis Campher, Kyle Klein, Tim Pringle, Aryan Dutt, Jordan Neill and Max O’Dowd
Irish Wolves: Matthew Humphreys, Fred Klaassen, Tim Tector, Paul Stirling, Zainullah Ihsan and AlexanderRoy
Dublin Guardians: Benjamin Calitz, George Dockrell, Matthew Hollard, Craig Young, Noah Croes and Chris Greaves
Edinburgh Castle Rockers: Gareth Delany, Ross Adair, Jack Jarvis, Charlie Tear, Safyaan Sharif and FinlayMcCreath
Glasgow Cosmic: Brad Currie, Matthew Cross, Paul van Meekeren, Michael Leask, Oliver Davidson and ChrisMcBride
Rotterdam Dockers: Jai Moondra, Michael Levitt, Ryan Klein, Jasper Davidson, Vikramjit Singh and Saqib Zulfiqar
The inaugural draft was one of the defining milestones in ETPL’s journey, with franchises backed by some of cricket’s biggest names, including Rahul Dravid, Steve Waugh, Matthew Hayden, Faf du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen, Glenn Maxwell and Jonty Rhodes, completing the first-ever player selections in the league’s history.
Glenn Maxwell, Co-Owner, on Irish Wolves’ draft picks : “Incredibly happy with how the draft went. It’s a new experience for me to be involved in starting a team from scratch. To go through the risk management process, building a squad and a team that we can put on the park and be really competitive has beena really great experience. Really happy how the draft went, we were able to get the picks that we needed, the playing skills we needed to give ourselves depth as well.”
Steve Waugh, Co-Owner, Amsterdam Flames on his team’s picks: “The first couple of choices were the playerswe wanted. And we knew after that we would have to think on our feet, improvise and see what the other teams were going to pick. Being the first choice (first team in the draft sequence) there’s a big gap between some of the selections. You have to wait andsee what goes on in front of you. We were all talking offline to make sure what the next selection is going to be.”
With the squads now finalised, attention turns to the inaugural season of the European T20 Premier League, which will bring together the best cricketing talent from Ireland, Scotlandand the Netherlands while providing emerging players with the opportunity to compete alongside established international stars.
About the European T20 Premier League
The ETPL is a joint venture between Cricket Ireland and Rules Global (Rules X). The league is co-founded and co-owned by Cricket Ireland, Abhishek Bachchan (leading Indian filmstar and multi-sport franchise owner), Saurav Banerjee (former Co-CEO of NDTV and Partner at Kalaari Capital), Priyanka Kaul (former CEO of Forbes), and Dhiraj Malhotra (former CEO of Delhi Capitals and former General Manager of the BCCI), partners at RulesGlobal. The league is being developed in partnership with Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association.
