Gayle-storm in Pakistan! West Indies batting sensation to sparkle PSL in 2016

Putting days of speculations to rest, Chris Gayle's agency has confirmed that the Jamaican marauder will be one of the numerous international cricket stars to feature in the inaugural season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) scheduled to be held in Doha from February 4 to 24 in 2016.

According to ESPNcricinfo, the agency that manages Gayle, known for his big-hitting in T20s, revealed that the left-hander has signed the pre-draft agreement on 14 September. Apart from Gayle, Darren Sammy, Sunil Narine and Owais Shah will also be a part of the PSL draft pool.

The franchise-based T20 tournament is likely to have at least 25 overseas stars alongside the domestic players. The PCB has also targetted some other specialist T20 performers including Brendon McCullum, Samuel Badree and Kevin Pietersen.

Najam Sethi, who is heading the PSL secretariat in the board, on 14 September had said that they were now in touch with the hard hitting West Indian opener. "We are in direct contact with him now after we spent lot of time trying to trace him and I am happy to report that he has consented to be part of the PSL," Sethi said.

Sethi, a former Chairman of the PCB, who heads the powerful executive committee in the board, had last week signed on former Pakistan greats Wasim Akram and Rameez Raja as brand ambassadors for the T20 league which is being hyped up by the PCB.

Gayle, a specialist T20 player has figured in all the foreign T20 leagues in the cricket including the Bangladesh Premier League and is a regular crowd puller in the Indian Premier League.

According to Sethi, nearly 80 foreign players have signed consent forms to take part in the PSL and the process of short listing the best available 20 to 25 players would be completed soon.