Yorkshire’s cricketers miss out on place in Pakistan T20

Tim bresnan, Andrew Gale, Adil Rashid and David Willey all put their names forward in the draw, but were not picked out.

England’s Sam Billings, however, was among the selections.

The Kent wicketkeeper-batsman, who has featured in five one-day and five Twenty20 internationals for England this year, was drafted by Islamabad United from the fourth-ranked “silver” category of players.

It remains to be seen whether the 24-year-old will actually appear at the February tournament, which clashes with the limited-overs leg of England’s South African tour in which Billings would expect to be involved.

If he does make the trip to Pakistan, Billings will be joined in the United dressing room by former Sussex spinner Ashar Zaidi, who was taken in the supplementary section of the draft.

Middlesex batsman Dawid Malan was signed by Peshawar Zalmi as a silver player.

The trio followed Monday’s selections of former England batsman Kevin Pietersen – who went fourth overall to the Quetta Gladiators as a platinum player – diamond selections Chris Jordan, Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright and the Karachi Kings’ gold player James Vince.

Among the notable supplementary selections were Sri Lanka stalwarts Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan, long-time Pakistan spinners Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Razzaq and Australian veteran Brad Hodge.

Former Yorkshire batsman Kane Williamson will captain New Zealand at the World Twenty20 in India in March after Brendon McCullum’s announcement yesterday that he will retire from international cricket after February’s Test series against Australia.

McCullum had wanted to wait until after his final match to make the announcement, but communicated the decision earlier than planned due to the imminent naming of the Black Caps’ ICC World Twenty20 squad.

“Ideally, I would have preferred to wait until after the ANZ Test in Christchurch to make this news public,” he said.

“However, the schedule for naming the ICC World T20 squads means I could not have managed this without causing a lot of confusion and speculation – something I was keen to avoid.

“I’ve loved my opportunity to play for, and captain the Black Caps, but all good things have to come to an end.”