Kevin Pietersen to play for Quetta Gladiators in Pakistan Super League
Monday 21 December 2015 14:54, UK
Kevin Pietersen has been selected in the first round of the draft for the inaugural Pakistan Super League campaign by the Quetta Gladiators.
The former England batsman has played Twenty20 cricket in Australia, South Africa and the Caribbean since finishing the County Championship season with Surrey.
He was selected fourth overall by the Gladiators, behind Pakistan internationals Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik and former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson.
The league opted for a draft system rather than the auctions favoured by other domestic T20 leagues, including the Indian Premier League. Players were split into categories - platinum, diamond, gold and silver, plus 'emerging' Pakistani players.
Pietersen was the only England-qualified player granted platinum status - and the accompanying £94,000 pay packet - but James Anderson and Ian Bell went unselected on day one of the draft.
Pietersen will share a dressing room with fellow England cap Luke Wright, the Gladiators' sixth pick as a £47,000 diamond player.
West Indies batsman Chris Gayle was picked by the Lahore Qalandars, while the Karachi Kings made Mohammad Amir the first of their gold picks as he continues his return from a five-year ban for spot-fixing.
The Kings took Ravi Bopara with their fifth pick and James Vince with their ninth, while Chris Jordan was taken by Peshawar with their sixth pick and was joined by Somerset's County Championship stalwart Jim Allenby with the ninth pick.
The February tournament clashes with the limited-overs leg of England's South African tour, which is likely to involve Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, and they went unselected from the diamond and gold categories respectively.
Diamond players Tim Bresnan, Michael Carberry, James Tredwell and Paul Collingwood were also overlooked, along with 14 gold players including Samit Patel, Jade Dernbach, Boyd Rankin, Andrew Gale and Varun Chopra.
The silver category, still to be selected on day two of the draft, features another 31 English players including Monty Panesar, Graham Onions, Scott Borthwick, Darren Stevens, Sajid Mahmood, Simon Jones and likely England selections Sam Billings and David Willey.
Ireland's Niall and Kevin O'Brien, Paul Stirling and George Dockrell will also wait to learn their fate, along with Scotland duo Preston Mommsen and Majid Haq.
