Rahul Dravid has been announced as the owner of Dublin Guardians, one of the European T20 Premier League (ETPL) teams that will be part of the six-team league, set to be launched in August this year.
ETPL is Europe’s first ICC-sanctioned multi-country franchise T20 league and it has been launched in partnership with Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association. The league would have teams from Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
“What attracted me to ETPL was the larger vision behind it, the opportunity to help grow cricket in Europe by strengthening grassroots development and creating pathways for emerging talent across Ireland and Europe,” Dravid said in a statement.
“Dublin already has a passionate cricketing community and enormous potential for growth. Nurturing the next generation has always been important to me, and I believe ETPL can play a meaningful role in that journey.”
The league, which is co-owned by Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan, has attracted several big names from international cricket as team owners. Glenn Maxwell is a co-owner of Irish Wolves, while former Australia captain Steve Waugh co-owns Amsterdam Flames. Former New Zealand players Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills own Edinburgh Castle Rockers.
Meanwhile, Chris Gayle is a co-owner of Glasgow Cosmic and Rotterdam Dockers is owned by Jonty Rhodes, Faf du Plessis and Heinrich Klaasen.
Apart from being team owners, du Plessis and Maxwell will also play in the tournament along with star players such as Steven Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Tim David, Mitchell Santner and Liam Livingstone.
“I know some of the names…some absolutely great players,” the former India captain and T20 World Cup winning coach was quoted as saying.
“A great opportunity for them to be able to play with so many of the local Irish, Scottish, Dutch and European players. I think that in itself should be a really exciting opportunity.”
Dravid said the challenge would be to grow cricket at the grassroots level by creating awareness and getting people to the ground. “At the grassroots level, it’s about creating that awareness for the fans, it’s about getting people on the ground, it’s about giving them a great experience,” he said.
“When they come to the cricket, the quality has got to be of a high standard but the experience of everything else at that venue has to be top-notch. Because we are competing with some very, very established sports.”
