Hyderabad: The inaugural season of Euro T20 Slam has been postponed to 2020, organisers of the tournament confirmed on Wednesday.
The tournament was scheduled to begin from August 30 this year, but now the competition will be played next year.
However, the organisers of the tournament have not given a reason for the postponement of the tournament.
"The Board of the Euro T20 Slam, funding partners and franchise owners of this exciting new T20 tournament have reluctantly come to the decision that staging of the event will not be possible in 2019," Prashant Mishra said in an official statement on the behalf of the board of Euro T20 Slam.
"We want to ensure that the inaugural staging of the Euro T20 Slam provides the best springboard to making this a true flagship event on the global cricket calendar. As such, we believe the right course of action is to postpone the Slam to a further date. This will give us the necessary breathing space to ensure we are ready to go," he added.
Chief Executives of both Cricket Ireland and Cricket Scotland expressed their disappointment over this decision, but they added that they understand the circumstances the decision was taken under.
"We are deeply disappointed with the decision, however, fully empathise with the rationale that has led to the tournament's postponement. The excitement and energy that the Euro T20 Slam had generated since it was announced has demonstrated a high level of interest amongst the Irish public in seeing world-class cricket hosted here in Ireland. We hope that that interest will carry on until 2020 when the Slam will finally get underway," Cricket Ireland Chief Executive Warren Deutrom said in a statement.
"While this was a very difficult decision to make at this late stage, we believe that it is the right one and one which leaves us with a great opportunity to launch the Euro T20 Slam next year with its deserved noise level. Cricket Scotland has no regrets about trying to find innovative ways to drive cricket forward, popularise the game, and attract more investment into the sport," Cricket Scotland Chief Executive Malcolm Cannon said.
Earlier, several prominent current and former cricketers were drafted into the six teams for the Euro T20 Slam.
In the six teams, two each are based in Ireland, Scotland, and the Netherlands. Each team has one designated 'icon player' and one 'marquee player'.
The identities of the icon and marquee players had been set beforehand but not which teams they would represent.
In the draft system, there was a lucky draw to determine who got the first pick. The first player to be picked was Australian Ben Cutting, by Amsterdam Knights. Pakistan's Mohammad Amir, Fakhar Zaman, England's Ravi Bopara, and Kiwi Matt Henry were picked up in the first two rounds of the draft.
Pakistan's Shaheen Afridi was the first pick in the third round. South Africa's Colin Ingram, England's Tymal Mills, and Pakistan's Hasan Ali were also picked in the third round.
Squads of all six teams for Euro T20 Slam are as follows:
Amsterdam Knights: Shane Watson, Imran Tahir , Ben Cutting, Ahmed Shehzad, Sikandar Raza, Varun Chopra, Hasan Ali, Alzarri Joseph, Saad Bin Zafar, Tobias Visee, Roelof van der Merwe, Brandon Glover, Ben Cooper, Paul van Meekeren, Phillipe Boissevain, Wesley Barresi, Sikandar Zulfiqar, Tonny Staal.
Belfast Titans: Shahid Afridi, JP Duminy, Luke Wright, Colin Ingram, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Ilyas, Aaron Summers, Paul Stirling, Gary Wilson, Mark Adair, Boyd Rankin, Shane Getkate, Craig Young, Andy McBrine, Stuart Thompson, Greg Thompson.
Dublin Chiefs: Eoin Morgan, Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir, Harry Gurney, Daniel Christian, Robbie Frylinck, Corbin Bosch, Andy Balbirnie, Kevin O'Brien, George Dockrell, Lorcan Tucker, Josh Little, Simi Singh, Tyrone Kane, Gareth Delaney, Harry Tector.
Edinburgh Rocks: Martin Guptill, Chris Lynn, Corey Anderson, Matt Henry, Tymal Mills, Tabraiz Shamsi, Anton Devcich, Dwaine Pretorius, Waqar Salamkheil, Kyle Coetzer, Calum MacLeod, Mark Watt, Michael Leask, Craig Wallace, Gavin Main, Adrian Neill, Dylan Budge, Oliver Hairs.
Glasgow Giants: Brendon McCullum, Dale Steyn, Ravi Bopara, Moises Henriques, Heinrich Klaasen, JJ Smuts, Usman Shinwari, Qais Ahmad, Richie Berrington, George Munsey, Alasdair Evans, Safyaan Sharif, Matthew Cross, Tom Sole, Scott Cameron.
