Yuvraj Singh and Chris Gayle: The legendary Indian and West Indian batsmen could be playing for the same club in Melbourne.
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Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh and veteran West Indies batsman Chris Gayle could be in line for representing Mulgrave Cricket Club in a third-tier competition in Melbourne’s Eastern Cricket Association (ECA).
Yuvraj and Gayle, who have played 30 international matches across formats against each other, are perceived as great friends among cricket fans. Given their fan base, the prospect of watching them play together would doubtlessly be enticing for their supporters.
“We are in negotiations, and with Chris [Gayle] and Yuvraj [Singh] we are nearly 85 to 90 per cent there. We need to finalise a few things but it looks really good,” Mulgrave Cricket Club President Milan Pullenayegam was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
Will Yuvraj Singh and Chris Gayle play together for Mulgrave Cricket Club in Australia?
It is worth mentioning that Mulgrave have already signed former Sri Lanka batsmen Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga as players and Sanath Jayasuriya as head coach.
According to cricket.com.au, Mulgrave are also in talks with former West Indies captain Brian Lara and former South Africa captain AB de Villiers to represent the club in what will convert into a star-studded squad.
Having said that, all there legendary names will not be able to take part in the same match due to the tournament’s existing rules. For the T20 Cup, the ECA allows only one “marquee” player in the Playing XI. With six matches to be played during the course of the tournament, the aforementioned names could be rotated accordingly in case of no rule change regarding the number of marquee players.
Apart from playing in the Road Safety World Series 2021, 39-year old Yuvraj had captained Toronto Nationals in Global T20 League 2019, represented Maratha Arabians in the Abu Dhabi T10 League 2019 and participated in the Bushfire relief match last year post his international retirement.
A few months before the start of BBL 2020-21, there were reports of Yuvraj contemplating to play in the Big Bash League in Australia. Yuvraj, who was also requested by PCA (Punjab Cricket Association) secretary Puneet Bali to come out of retirement and play for Punjab, missed the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy earlier this year as he didn’t get the permission to play a domestic tournament after playing in overseas leagues.
